The Bhutanese Leading the way.
The Deputy Chief of Police, Colonel Dorji Wangchuk, who looked after Crime and Operations in the RBP was terminated from service towards the end of May 2021 on the recommendation of an RBP Enquiry Committee to the Police Service Board.
When the RBP sent its investigation report into the Criminal Conspiracy case to the Office of The Attorney General (OAG) for prosecution one aspect of the case had to do with Khandu Wangmo and RBG Brigadier Thinley Tobgay threatening Khandu Wangmo’s ex-boyfriend Colonel Karma Lodey Samphel of RBA and subjecting him to emotional and mental distress.
One of the tactics that Khandu Wangmo used to harass the RBA Colonel was by using a former RBA Captain to make anonymous threat calls to the Colonel.
The RBA Colonel complained to the RBP station in Olakha about these threat calls. The RBP launched an investigation and were able to trace the number to the former RBA Captain.
The RBA Colonel was present when the former Captain confessed to making threat calls to him on the behest of Khandu Wangmo.
The Colonel recorded the confession of the former Captain on his phone.
However, when Khandu Wangmo learnt about the confession and the Colonel recording it she became afraid that it would be used as evidence against her in any potential legal case.
It was then that Khandu Wangmo contacted the Deputy Chief of Police (DCOP) for Crime and Operations, Colonel Dorji Wangchuk and asked his help to delete the evidence.
The DCOP got in touch with the RBA Colonel and asked him to delete the confession which he did.
The DCOP was suspended when the RBP put its criminal conspiracy case together.
When the OAG got the case it sent the charge against the DCOP to the RBP asking them to take administrative action.
However, given the severity of the Criminal Conspiracy Case and what Khandu Wangmo had done the RBP decided to take a sterner approach.
The RBP instituted an enquiry committee which did an investigation and recommended for the termination of the DCOP to the Police Service Board, and accordingly it was done.
The DCOP had around two years left in service.
In the criminal conspiracy case court judgment by the Thimphu District Court, both Khandu Wangmo and Brigadier Thinley Tobgay had been convicted of harassing the RBA Colonel among other convictions.
Colonel Karma Lodey Samphel of the RBA had lodged a written complaint to RBP on 20th October 2020 against Khandu Wangmo and Thinley Tobgay for harassing him for a period of seven months from April 2016 to October 2016.
This complaint was in addition to a 9th July 2020 complaint by Drangpon Yeshey Dorji of impersonation of uniformed personnel and deceptive practice against Khandu Wangmo and former Brigadier Thinley Tobgay.
It was these two official complaints that brought light to the entire criminal conspiracy case.
A source said that early on Khandu Wangmo had approached the Chief Operation Officer Goonglen Batoo Tshering when she and the RBA Colonel had some problems in the relationship between them but the COO declined to help or get involved at the time.
A story that Khandu Wangmo told some of her followers was that she lost her job in the Indian Embassy because of the RBA Colonel, however, given her long list of different lies told to different people at different times this claim is not possible to verify.
In the RBP Chain of Command the highest rank is occupied by the Chief of Police, followed by the Additional Chief of Police and then the four DCOPs who handle specialized areas like Crime and Operation, Administration and Finance, Special Police Branch (Training Institutions) and Investigation Bureau (Intelligence and National Security) respectively.
Colonel Dorji Wangchuk handled Crime and Operations which means that he oversaw and got reports on all crime related reports from all the SPs of the 20 Dzongkhags including in Thimphu. Among the DCOPs he would also have the maximum interface with the SPs and OCs and the public.
There is currently an officiating DCOP in Colonel Phub Gyeltshen who is expected to formally take over the post.
The Bhutanese was the first media outlet to bring out the story in its paper and PDF Digital issue on Saturday.
