Online game leads to rape of underage girls

By Purushottam P. Khatri

Kathmandu, Apr. 23: Can you imagine a 13-year-old girl has been raped after getting addicted to an online ‘Free Fire game’? But this has happened in Kathmandu recently. 

Kathmandu District Police Office has arrested Mahesh Udas, 27, of Palpa on the basis of the victim’s complaint. 

According to Superintendent of Police (SP) Dinesh Raj Mainali of the Police Office, Mahesh invited the girl to come to Kathmandu from Palpa after they became friend through the game ‘Free Fire.’ 

A preliminary police investigation has shown that Mahesh enticed the girl with the promise of marrying her. 

But, instead of getting married, the girl was raped by her online gaming friend. The man was undergoing further investigation after a 10-day remand order from the Kathmandu District Court on Wednesday. 

SP Mainali said that the police will file a rape charge sheet against him under Section 219 of the Chapter 18 of the National Criminal Procedure Act 2017.  

How it happened 

A preliminary investigation of the police has revealed that a 13-year-old girl was raped by a young man at Basundhara in Tokha Municipality-6, Kathmandu, on April 13. 

According to the Criminal Code Act, adolescents under the age of 18 are not allowed to have sexual relationship even with consent. Now, actor Pal Shah is doing his time in a jail on the order of the district court for having sex with a minor girl.  According to SP Mainali, Mahesh had committed the crime by pledging to marry the girl. Some time ago, the girl’s family had lodged a complaint with the police alleging that she had gone missing. After that, the Kathmandu Metropolitan Police and its subordinate police offices started searching for the girl. During the search, the girl was found at Matatirtha in Chandragiri Municipality-8, Kathmandu, on Monday this week. After finding the girl, Mahesh’s deeds were exposed during interrogation. It has been revealed that Mahesh and the girl got acquainted a year ago. 

The medium of their acquaintance was the ‘Free Fire’ game. While playing the game, they started talking through messenger. Not only that, their chats on mobile phones had increased, said the police. 

It has been revealed that Mahesh brought the girl from Palpa to Kathmandu on a motorcycle saying that they would get married on April 12. It is mentioned in the complaint filed by the victim that she was raped by him. 

Additional case

This year in January, a fake Facebook account named Sangam Maharjan was used to rape a girl by establishing friendship with her. 

Police had arrested Sujan Shrestha, a resident of Panauti Municipality-1, in Kavrepalanchok on charge of being involved in the incident.

According to the police, Sujan had initially made video calls to the girl persuading her to show her private parts and recorded the video call. He then started threatening to show the video to her friends at school and family and make it viral on social media.

It has been revealed through the police investigation that she was called to meet him in an under construction house near Budhanilkantha in Kathmandu on January 11. SP Mainali said that with the increase in the use of technology and online gaming, different forms of criminal incidents are taking place in society. Lately, criminal activities resulting from online streaming game platforms, including Free Fire, has been on the rise.  As a result, such apps have been banned in many countries, said SP Mainali.