The Parbat District Court has sentenced a school headmaster to five years in prison on the conviction of sexually abusing female students.

A single bench of Judge Surya Bahadur Thapa on Wednesday handed down the sentence to Khil Prasad Paudel, the headmaster of Majhigaun Basic School in Phelebas-6, after he was found guilty of forcing three school girls, aged between 7 and 12, to fondle his genitals.

The 50-year-old headmaster was arrested seven months ago based on complaints filed by the girls’ parents.

The incident had first come to light when one of the girls confided to her parents about how Poudel had been abusing her.

Soon, other girls came forward and shared their own tales about Paudel’s predatory behaviour, how he had abused them repeatedly.  

Paudel colleagues said they were shocked by the revelation. One of them said that he had always regarded Paudel as a headmaster who was concerned about the academic progress of the students and bettering the school infrastructure.

“None of us had noticed any misconduct on his part. We were shocked when we learned about the incident,” he said.