The Bhutanese Leading the way.
The High Court’s higher bench on 17 May has convicted a 33-year-old anesthetic technician Jampel Rinchen of JDWNRH to five years for raping a 31-year-old married woman after injecting her with Fentanyl which is used as an anesthetic drug.
According to medical literature the drug in the same quantity is 75 times more powerful than morphine and some variants can be 10,000 times more powerful than morphine.
Jampel Rinchen was charged for two charges and is sentenced concurrently for two convictions. The convict raped the woman at national referral hospital when she came as an attendant to her relative.
Though Jampel appealed stating that it was a consensual sex, the court dismissed his appeal saying that there is no evidence to prove that it was consensual. The court in its judgment states that there was evidence showing his motive against the victim.
Since the convict submitted that he has no source of income to pay a compensation of Nu 225,000 to the victim as ordered by the Thimphu District Court, the court asked him to pay Nu 22,500 which is equivalent to the national wage of six months to the victim.
The initial incident took place on 5 April 2018 at around 11 PM in JDWNRH when the woman was called into the operation theater (OT) by the anesthetic technician.
The rapist had specifically called the duty nurse that night to send the 28-year-old woman to him, although there were two attendants with the patient during the time, as he said he needed her blood sample for a possible blood transfusion required by the patient.
In addition, when nurse informed the woman about the blood transfusion, she had told the nurse that if there is a need for an immediate blood transfusion then the patient’s son (the other attendant on duty) can donate his blood. However, the nurse said only the woman was required as instructed by the anesthetic technician.
The woman then met with Jampel Rinchen near the OT, whereby he drew her blood and injected her with Fentanyl, which made her fall unconscious. After injecting the woman with Fentanyl, he raped her.
When she regained her consciousness, she was seated on a chair outside the OT where one lady doctor helped her and informed the police later.
CCTV camera in JDWNRH has captured the rapist taking the victim to the Pre-Anesthesia Check-up (PAC) room at around 11.35 pm. The cameras also captured him coming out alone from the room after around 25 minutes, leaving the victim behind.
A source also said that the camera also corroborated the victim’s statements and showed how she suffered after she regained consciousness in the hospital corridor.
The forensic medicine department of JDWNRH called the police at 9 am on 6th April the next day for a possible sexual assault case. Thimphu police then apprehended the 30-year-old-man from his residence on the same day.
The victim had been married for seven years when the crime happened and she has two children.
