According to the statement, an arrest warrant for him was issued in 2020 on charges of “sexually abusing a minor girl” who was reportedly living as a nun at Bomjan’s ashram in Bara district, south of Nepal’s capital Kathmandu.
Nepalese police arrest Ram Bahadur Bomjam at the Central Bureau of Investigation headquarters in Kathmandu on January 10, 2024. Photo: AFP
Police said they tracked the 34-year-old man to the outskirts of the capital Kathmandu and “arrested him as he was trying to flee”.
They said they seized more than a dozen mobile phones, five laptops and tablets, and more than $200,000 in Nepalese and foreign currency from his home.
The arrest comes nearly two decades after he first came to international attention. Local media reported at the time that in 2005, at the age of 15, Bomjan had gone into the forest to practice meditation for 10 months. His followers once claimed that he did so without eating, sleeping or drinking.
Bomjan's nickname “Buddha Boy” helped raise his fame as thousands of people from across the country and neighboring India came to see Bomjan while in the forest.
According to Bomjan's website, he began preaching about two years later, attracting about 3,000 people to his first sermon. Bomjan and his supporters then established a network of ashrams across Nepal dedicated to his teachings.
But in recent years, Bomjan has been repeatedly accused of wrongdoing. Bomjan's ashram was raided in 2019 during an investigation into the disappearance of four of his followers.
Police said on Wednesday that “further investigations and searches are underway in connection with the devotees who have disappeared from Bomjan’s ashram at various times.”
Mai Van (according to CNN)
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