Paul acquitted, to be released today

By Our Correspondent,Tanahun, Feb. 27: Actor Paul Shah, who has been in the Tanahun Jail on rape charges for a year, has been acquitted.

The Pokhara High Court gave a clean chit to Shah on Sunday. A bench of Judges Dilliraj Acharya and Shree Dhara Kumari Pudasaini acquitted the actor stating that the prosecution’s claim was not sufficient to support allegations.

After the Nawalpur District Court acquitted Shah on the charge of rape on September 6, and sentenced him to 2 and half years of imprisonment on the charge of child sexual abuse and to compensate the victim with Rs. 1 million, actor Shah had filed a writ petition in the Pokhara High Court. 

The writ petition was heard in the bench of Chief Justice Acharya and Justice Pudasaini. 

Senior advocate Kamal Mohan Wagle informed that actor Shah would be released on Monday.

The girl's father had logged a complaint against actor Shah on February 23 last year in the District Police Office, Tanahun, alleging that Shah had repeatedly raped his daughter in various places while shooting a music video.

 Shah himself had surrendered to the police on February 27 last year. Although the girl who was said to be the victim and her father had previously filed a complaint saying that it was a rape, they changed their statements in both courts saying that it was not rape. 

Actor Paul Shah was acquitted by the District Court Tanahun on January 17 this year.

 District Judge Komal Prasad Acharya's bench had acquitted Shah on the grounds that the allegations of rape were not sufficient. The district court also acquitted Paul Shah's manager Krishna Joshi.