An Ascetic’s Fall From Grace

After being on the run for several years, a self-proclaimed ascetic was apprehended at his home. Ram Bahadur Bamjan, popularly known as a Buddha boy because of his years of meditation in solitude under a tree in a dense forest in Bara district, has been accused of rape and the forced disappearance of multiple people from his ashrams or hermitages. After a few nuns from his ashrams, one of whom was a minor, accused him of raping them, authorities launched an investigation but failed to arrest him since Bamjan remained in hiding for nearly five years following the accusations.