Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Other Buddhist institutions and contexts Buddhist institutions and lineages Pattharkot, Sarlahi District, Nepal · 2016

Ram Bahadur Bomjon: Supreme Court appeal pending after High Court acquittal

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Active investigation

Authority role

self-presented ascetic and guru who led an ashram community

Organization

Maitri Dharma ashram community

Spiritual nexus

The charging record concerns a minor who entered Bomjon's ashram as a young follower and lived there as an ani, or female renunciant. Prosecutors alleged that Bomjon abused her while exercising guru authority within the residential ashram. The spiritual relationship and institution supplied access and dependency; the allegation itself remains unresolved while the government's appeal is pending.

  • Guru or spiritual-teacher authority
  • Institutional obedience or isolation

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2024-07-01 · conviction and sentence

    Sarlahi District Court, Nepal. The district court convicted Bomjon of child sexual abuse, sentenced him to 10 years in prison and ordered Rs 500,000 in compensation. That judgment was later vacated in full on appeal.

  2. 2025-03-19 · acquittal and dismissal of charge sheet

    Janakpur High Court, Nepal, cases 081-CS-0216 and 081-CS-0304. The High Court vacated the conviction, dismissed the charge sheet and acquitted Bomjon because it held that the case was filed outside the limitation period under the law in force when the alleged conduct occurred. The court said that this threshold ruling made a merits analysis unnecessary.

  3. 2025-08-19 · government appeal pending

    Supreme Court of Nepal. The Office of the Attorney General appealed the acquittal, arguing that the High Court applied the limitation rules incorrectly. A May 2026 report continued to identify the child-sexual-abuse appeal as pending; no later disposition was located.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • spiritual-teacher authority over a minor resident disciple
  • ashram residence and dependency
  • alleged sexual abuse

Primary record

Sources

court opinion appellate judgment Ram Bahadur Bomjon alias Ram Lal Bomjon v. Government of Nepal, cases 081-CS-0216 and 081-CS-0304, Janakpur High Court (Mar. 19, 2025; certified Apr. 17, 2025).

The appellate judgment records the protected complainant's minor status and residence as an ani in Bomjon's ashram, the allegations and charge, the district conviction and sentence, both appeals, and the High Court's limitation ruling vacating the conviction and dismissing the charge sheet without reaching the merits.

court and prosecutor sourced reporting supreme court appeal Setopati, 'Appeal filed against decision to acquit Ram Bahadur Bomjon of child sexual abuse' (Aug. 19, 2025).

Contemporaneous reporting quotes the Supreme Court's information officer and the Office of the Attorney General on receipt of the appeal, identifies the limitation issue, and accurately states the vacated district sentence and High Court acquittal.

current local reporting pending appeal status check Artha Sarokar, 'Ram Bahadur Bomjon acquitted of money laundering case' (May 3, 2026).

The report is used only for its current-status statement that the separate child-sexual-abuse case remained pending in the Supreme Court in May 2026. This record does not incorporate or characterize the unrelated money-laundering proceeding.

Contextual record

Background & context

Institutional and pattern-level sources on Buddhist institutions and contexts, not specific to this one case.

Islington Gazette (2022) ''Shameful': Sogyal Rinpoche's Cally Buddhist charity Rigpa 'put students at risk of harm', Charity Commission finds', Islington Gazette. Available at: islingtongazette.co.uk (Accessed: 14 July 2026).

'An official inquiry from the Charity Commission found there had been misconduct, mismanagement and serious safeguarding failures at Rigpa Fellowship', the UK charity of the Tibetan Buddhist teacher Sogyal Rinpoche (author of ‘The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying’). The Commission's chief executive stated: 'The fact that students were subjected to abuse by somebody in a position of power is shameful.' Note: this is a statutory regulatory finding, not a criminal conviction — Sogyal died in 2019 without facing trial, and the underlying allegations remained legally unproven.

Wickwire Holm (2019) 'Report of the Investigation into Claims of Sexual Misconduct within the Shambhala Community' [independent law-firm investigation commissioned by Shambhala and released by its own Interim Board, 3 February 2019]. Available at: shambhala.report (Accessed: 15 July 2026).

The investigation Shambhala commissioned into its own leader, released by its own board — two of the three completed claims investigations 'concern Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche', the head of the lineage founded by his father Chögyam Trungpa. The investigator found: 'Several of the witnesses I had already spoken to confirmed that this incident took place. Indeed, the Sakyong admitted to kissing Claimant No. 1 as alleged... I find Claimant No. 1 to be a creditable witness', and concluded: 'his actions and behavior on that night constitute sexual misconduct.' Tier note: this is an organization-commissioned investigation with a formal finding and a partial admission — not a criminal proceeding. No criminal conviction exists in the Shambhala matter: the one prosecution of a Boulder Shambhala meditation teacher (William Karelis) was dismissed by the DA in 2021 before trial, and the movement's earlier documented history — including Trungpa's conduct and his regent Ösel Tendzin knowingly transmitting HIV, who died in 1990 without charges — was never adjudicated. Each fact is recorded here at exactly its weight.

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