Buddha Boy sentenced to ten years in prison for raping minors

KATHMANDU, JULY 1

The Sarlahi District Court today sentenced Ram Bahadur Bomjon, known as “Buddha Boy”, to ten years in prison for raping a minor.

On June 24, a court headed by Justice Jeevan Kumar Bhandari found Bomjon guilty of sexually abusing a minor. Today, it sentenced Bomjon to 10 years in prison and ordered him to pay Rs 500,000 to the victim.

Two other accused, Gyan Bahadur and Dig Bahadur, were acquitted in the case. Ganga Maya had filed a complaint in the Sarlahi District Court, alleging that Bomjon had raped her when she was a minor.

Bomjon was previously arrested from Budhanilkantha on January 9. Bomjon had been in hiding since February 6, 2020, when the Sarlahi District Court issued an arrest warrant against him on the request of the police. In July, he was abused in the Sarlahi District Court.

The Sarlahi District Prosecutor’s Office demanded a prison sentence of 12 to 15 years for Bomjon and his two accomplices for their alleged involvement in the sexual exploitation of the minors.

Five separate complaints were filed with police in five different districts regarding the disappearance of family members from Bomjon’s Ashram after Setopati published a news report on December 26, 2018, titled “Series of cases of sexual exploitation and violence in Bomjon’s Ashrams,” in which he detailed the disappearance of four people from his ashram.

Mahendra Waiwa of Makawanpur filed a police complaint that his ashram was missing. Similarly, Hasta Bahadur Ale Magar of Bara was looking for his son. Bijaya Rumba of Makawanpur was looking for her elder sister; and Ganga Maya Tamang of Nuwakot was looking for her younger sister. Waiwa of Hetauda sub-metropolitan town filed a police complaint claiming that his father Sancha Lal had been missing from Bomjon’s ashram for four years.

Waiwa’s father called from Bomjon’s ashram in Badegaun, Sindhupalchowk on March 28, 2015, and said he would be coming home in three days. He filed a police complaint as his father did not come home even after ten days. Two days later, he returned to the ashram and found that his father had already left. In his complaint, he stated that despite years of searching, his father had not been found.

Sumni Bot from Kajiram Tole in Bagmati municipality also filed a complaint with the police, claiming that her daughter Rita had disappeared from Bomjon’s Halkhoriya Ashram.

In 2005, Ram Bahadur Bomjon unexpectedly came into the spotlight while meditating under a large poplar fig tree in a remote forest in Bara, Madhya Tarai.

Bomjon, then 16, began meditating in the forest. However, over time his name became associated with a number of controversies.

According to police, charges have been filed against Bomjon in connection with four missing persons cases, the killing of one person and the sexual assault of one of her followers.

Five years ago, the police started investigating complaints lodged with various district police offices alleging that some “devotees” had gone to his ashram in Sindhupalchowk and not returned. At the same time, the ashram in Badegaon, Sindhupalchowk was sealed and an investigation was launched.