Sanjeeb Phuyal is the Nepali Editor of Newschecker based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He brings over a decade of experience writing and editing news. In his previous stint, he worked as online editor for The Kathmandu Post. With the growth of social media platforms—and the ever-growing competition amongst media outlets to churn out breaking news, he feels that fact-checking every piece of information has become more essential today than ever before.
Claim
Nepali cricketer Sandeep Lamichhane given clean-chit by a High Court.
Fact
Lamichhane’s lawyer is planning to appeal against the Kathmandu District Court verdict to sentence him to eight-year in jail.
A video claiming that a High Court has granted a clean-chit to Nepali star cricketer Sandeep Lamichhane has gone viral on TikTok.
The 23-year-old leg-spinner shot to fame with a successful Under-19 World Cup in 2016, becoming the first ever and only Nepali player to be picked up by Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise in 2018. He was suspended as captain of Nepali cricket team and taken into custody after police issued an arrest warrant for his alleged involvement in assaulting a minor girl in 2022, and was later released on bail.
Earlier on December 29, 2023, the Kathmandu District Court found Lamichhane guilty of raping an 18-year-old girl in a Tilaganga-based hotel on August 21, 2022.
Against this backdrop, TikTok user @deependra651 posted a video showing a collage of separate images by Sandeep Lamichhane. One of them showed Lamichhane being welcomed with garland, another image showed a Nepal police person. Text superimposed on the video reads, “The High Court ordered to release Sandeep. Here is the early morning good news. Sandeep has been released. Respectful release, the truth has prevailed, making the fans happy. Thanks to the court for issuing a verdict in favour of the truth.”
The video posted on November 18 has garnered 11.5k likes, 42 users have shared it and 464 people have commented until the last count. The archived version of TikTok video can be seen here.
Fact Check /Verification
To check the veracity of the claim made in the viral video, Newschecker searched for the latest news on Sandeep Lamichhane and found several news reports on national and international media about the jail term handed by the Kathmandu District Court on January 10, 2024.
On checking an article published on espncricinfo we found that the Kathmandu District Court on Wednesday (January 10) sentenced Lamichhane to eight years in jail.
We found another news report published on BBC Sports confirming that Nepali cricketer Lamichhane has been convicted of raping an 18-year-old girl and handed eight-year jail term.
We found a news report, dated November 4, 2022, published on the Kathmandu Post online about the custodial remand of Sandeep Lamichhane in the rape case. Another article, dated January 13, 2023, published on the same website, reported that the cricketer was released after posting a bail of Rs million set by the Patan High Court.
Newschecker reached out to Lamichhane’s lawyer Saroj Krishna Ghimire, who said that they plan to appeal against the verdict to a higher court. “We strongly believe that Lamichhane is innocent and he will get justice. We are waiting for a full verdict on the case before we appeal against the decision,” Ghimire said.
Thus, our findings clearly indicate that the High Court has not issued any verdict in favour of cricketer Lamichhane until the time of publishing this article rather his attorney is waiting for the full verdict from Kathmandu District to appeal against it to the higher court.
Conclusion
The viral video claiming that a High court has ordered the release of Nepali cricketer Sandeep Lamichhane is misleading. The video carrying old and unrelated images made a false claim while Lamichhane was handed down an eight-year jail sentence.
Result: False
Sources
Espncricinfo, Jan 10, 2024
BBC Sports, Jan 10, 2024
Kathmandu Post, January 13, 2023
Direct Contact with Lamichhne’s Lawyer
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Sanjeeb Phuyal is the Nepali Editor of Newschecker based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He brings over a decade of experience writing and editing news. In his previous stint, he worked as online editor for The Kathmandu Post. With the growth of social media platforms—and the ever-growing competition amongst media outlets to churn out breaking news, he feels that fact-checking every piece of information has become more essential today than ever before.
