On 28 November 2017, Thimphu police apprehended an 18 year old boy for having a sexual relationship with his 15 year old girlfriend. The suspect is a class VIII student while the victim is class VII student and two of them are from different schools in Thimphu.
The initial complaint was lodge by the victim’s parent on 28 November as Missing of Person (MoP) complaint. They stated that, on 25 November, their daughter went to school for her final exam whereby she did not return home since then.
In addition, they also said that they could not contact their daughter since she did not have a mobile phone.
Accordingly, police during their course of investigation and with the help of victim’s friends and relatives, found that, the girl went out with her boyfriend. With the collected information, they managed to get hold of both the victim and suspect.
After their arrest, police said that, both of them confessed to have had a sexual relationship. It was learned that, two of them have spent three days with their relative’s friend.
Police said that, the case falls under rape of a child above 12 years of age. Section 183 of PCB 2004 states that, a defendant shall be guilty of the offence of rape of a child above the age of twelve years, if the defendant has sexual intercourse with a child between the age of twelve to eighteen years.
In addition, section 184 of the Act states that, the offence of rape of a child above the age of twelve years shall be a felony of the third degree. However, since the suspect is 18 year old, police said that, he will serve half the sentence of imprisonment given to an adult.
Section 115 of the Act states that, if the defendant is a Juvenile of 10 years or above, a Court may sentence the juvenile to a minimum of half of the sentence prescribed for the offence.