Chandra Maya Tamang heaved a sigh of relief over the news that Sankhuwasabha District Court slapped a 12-year jail sentence on those who had gang-raped her niece on June last year. “I am happy that justice has been done, but those monsters deserved life sentence,” she told Nepali Times.

Her niece, a 21-year-old apprentice at the Laligurans Rimthen Chholing Boudha Gumba in Dilkharka, was gang raped by driver and the crew of the passenger bus at Sabha Khola in Sankhuwasabha district on the night of June 24. The culprits also looted 130 thousand rupees she was carrying for her sister Kabita Tamang, who had sent the money for constructing a house in village.

She had stayed with Kabita in Kankadbhitta for two days before leaving for her village. “I wish I had insisted her to stay few more days,” she recalls. “I wish things that had happened could be undone.”

Chandra Maya was in constant touch with her until 6 pm that evening and the nun would have reached her, had the river on the way not been flooded. The bus had to make an unscheduled night stop. As the lodges were already full, the bus staff convinced her to spend the night in a bus and raped her repeatedly. She was found next morning unconscious tied inside the same bus, which had left early in the morning from Sabhakhola. Members of the Limbuwan Volunteers had caught the culprits in a place called Kharang and handed them over to Chainpur police.

A single bench of Sankhuwasabha district Judge Salikram Koirala on Monday announced a 12-year jail term for Raj Kumar Limbu, Bhuwan Korangi, Shobhit Magar and Abhishekh Magar. According to district Attorney Krishna Batu Bhandari, Drona Rai who was found guilty of aiding in the crime was handed six years sentence.

Although, the convicted will have to pay Rs 50,000 compensation each and fork out the money stolen from the nun, the compensation amount is way too less given the treatment costs and the psychological trauma the victim has had to endure.

Chandra Maya had taken a loan of 250 thousand rupees from money lenders. “I had to pawn ornaments of friends and family members for the money and they have been charging me 38 percent interest,” she says. Nun’s father Krishna Tamang is in worse condition. His house in Sankhuwasabha collapsed during the September earthquake and having spent all the money for daughter’s treatment the family does not have money to rebuild the house and is living in a makeshift hut. “It seems the fate also favours the rich,” laments Krishna.

Kabita Tamang told us her sister’s condition has not improved. Despite doctors’ warning, she had been taken to Sankhuwasbha to testify her statement where she was asked to recall the traumatic incident . When she returned Kathmandu she had to be hospitalised again.

Kabita thinks minimum punishment for a rapist should be life imprisonment. Presently, the punishment for a rape convict is a jail term up to 10 years. “I don’t think the law is strong enough to deter people from committing such heinous crimes,” she says. “ The physical and psychological trauma our family had to go through is beyond any reparation and it should never happen to anyone.”

Dewan Rai

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