Kathmandu Student Speaks Out: A Year of Stalking, Harassment, and Silence from Authorities
भदौ ८, २०८२ ११:३४
Kathmandu: “I have been silently enduring this for months. But now his actions have crossed all limits. I am forced to speak; I am begging for help from everyone.”
These are the desperate words of Smriti Poudel, a student at Amrit Science Campus in Kathmandu. For the past year, her life has been trapped in fear, anxiety, and uncertainty.
The person at the center of her suffering, she says, is Sumit Bhattarai. Smriti’s account, made public through Instagram, has shocked society. Her story has sparked a debate about how political influence can be misused to trap a young woman’s life in fear, turning it into a prison.
A year of harassment
According to Smriti, though she cut all ties with Sumit a year ago, he continued to stalk and harass her in different ways. She alleges that he even tried to destroy her reputation by creating a fake Instagram account in her name.
“He created an Instagram account using my name and spoke to my friends through it,” Smriti told TechPana. “I filed a complaint with the Cyber Bureau. But they only closed the account, saying they had no technology to prove it was Sumit.”
Smriti says she also showed the bureau Esewa remarks and disturbing Gmail messages sent by Sumit. “They categorized the Esewa remarks as online fraud. They said they had taken similar action on other social media platforms as well.”
Section 47 of the Electronic Transactions Act, 2063, clearly states that anyone who teases, harasses, insults, or commits any derogatory act against a woman can be punished with a fine of up to Rs 100,000, imprisonment for up to five years, or both. TechPana tried to contact the Cyber Bureau regarding Smriti’s complaint but was unsuccessful.
Continuous digital abuse
According to Smriti, the harassment then escalated. She began receiving calls from multiple unknown numbers, many of which she has made public on Instagram.
Sumit also sent her hundreds of emails, most with the subject line “budi.” When ignored, he started sending insulting remarks through Esewa, writing in the remarks section, sending 1 rupees multiple times, which she says caused her deep mental distress.
“I love you. I remind you of everything. I don’t look at anyone except you. My love…” read one of the Esewa messages.
Stalked in public spaces
Smriti alleges that Sumit’s actions were not limited to online abuse. She says he followed her from college to home on his bike, even trailing the microbus or tempo she traveled in.
At times, she claims, he tried to touch her inside public vehicles. In one video Smriti posted online, Sumit can be heard confronting her:
“Why are you coming all the way here to stalk me?” she says in distress. Sumit replies, “What do you mean by saying something you don’t understand?”
In the same video, Smriti pleads with the driver: “I’m going to the police. How did he follow me all the way from college? Please take him out of here.”
Her voice is also heard breaking as she repeatedly says, “Don’t touch me… I don’t want anything from you.”
According to her, Sumit would wait on streets she walked, loiter near her home, and even harass her at her front gate.
Smriti wrote that he once followed her to an exam center, intimidating her so much that it ruined her ability to focus on the test. She also alleges that he would enter classrooms in her college during teacher absences to threaten her.
One of her friends who spoke up for her was also allegedly threatened. Smriti says Sumit hired goon and threatened her friend, “If anyone comes in the way, I will kill him. He will not survive.”
Police complaint, but no relief
Unable to bear the harassment, Smriti filed a complaint at the Kalimati Police Station. “We even went to Teku for advice. I filed the complaint at Kalimati police,” she said. The call logs she made public include numbers linked to police offices in Teku, Balkhu, and Kalimati, along with individual officers.
But according to Smriti, the police did not take her complaint seriously. “The police only made him sign a meaningless agreement and let me go, while he never stopped chasing and harassing me,” she wrote.
Smriti says Sumit openly boasts that no one can touch him because of his political ties to the Nepal Students’ Union (NSU). She believes this political access has given him protection from the law.
TechPana tried to contact Sumit for his response, but he did not answer calls.
“Let me live in peace”
In her post, Smriti makes a clear demand: “This is not just abuse. This is stalking. This is the madness of a dangerous man. If anything happens to me, my family, or my friends, he will be fully responsible.”
She says she wants nothing from Sumit, except to be left alone to live and study in peace. “I don’t want him near my house. I don’t want him to harass my friends by asking about me. I just want safety.”
Smriti has also demanded that Sumit bring his family and apologize to her and her family, and that he agree never to contact her again. “This routine harassment has made my life unbearable,” she said.
After Smriti’s emotional post was made public, users on Instagram and Reddit began voicing support for her. Many raised questions about women’s safety and the failure of the justice system. Criticizing both the law and the police for failing to protect her, social media users have demanded accountability. Some have also pledged to help her in any way they can.
(Smriti’s original post and archived version are available.)
पछिल्लो अध्यावधिक: भदौ ८, २०८२ ११:३४
