'Buddha Boy' Ram Bahadur Bomjan of Nepal arrested for raping minor girl

Nepal's police said on Wednesday that they had taken into custody a spiritual guide who is thought by his devotees to be a Buddha reincarnation due to reports of sexual assault and disappearances at his ashrams.

Referred to as "Buddha Boy" by his fans, Ram Bahadur Bomjan rose to fame in his teenage years when he was able to sit in meditation for months without food, drink, or rest.

The 33-year-old guru has a devoted following, but he has been in hiding from the authorities for several years after being accused of physically and sexually abusing his followers.

After being at large "for several years," he was apprehended, according to police spokeswoman Kuber Kadayat, who spoke to AFP.

Based on a warrant for his suspected rape of a juvenile at an ashram in Sarlahi, a district south of the capital, police detained Bomjan in Kathmandu.

They claimed that he was apprehended in possession of bundles of cash totalling $22,500 in foreign money and 30 million Nepali rupees ($225,000).

Bomjan has been the target of abuse and misconduct accusations for more than ten years.

In 2010, numerous reports of sexual assault were made against Bomjan. The victims, he claimed, had disturbed his concentration, so he beat them.

In 2018, at a monastery, an eighteen-year-old nun accused the guru of raping her.

When four of his devotees vanished from one of his ashrams, family members filed a second police case against him the following year.

Dinesh Acharya of the Central Investigation Bureau said to reporters on Wednesday that the four people's whereabouts remain a mystery.