The Bhutanese Leading the way.
On 4 June, Thimphu police apprehended a 35-year-old man from Lhuentse for forgery. Initially, the case was reported to police by the National Commission for Women and Children (NCWC) on 25 May 2018.
The suspect is an ex-staff of NCWC. He was recruited for the contract period of two years as a project manager, and he officially joined NCWC office on 1 July 2017. However, the suspect voluntarily resigned from office on 31 January 2018.
The suspect had drafted a forged letter using the seal of NCWC under the name of a staff of NCWC who was transferred. The suspect drafted a letter stating that, he along with four other women, will be travelling to US to attend a gender meeting.
Thereby, the suspect had sent the signed forged letter to the US embassy in Delhi for visa processing. However, when the US embassy tried to verify with NCWC, they came to know that the letter was forged.
NCWC then called the suspect and he confessed to forging the letter. NCWC, sensing a criminal offence, forwarded the case to the police for further investigation. The suspect was then arrested following a preliminary investigation.
Police said that one of the women in NCWC has received an invitation to attend a gender based meeting in US, but it was not compulsory. The suspect, taking advantage of being an ex-staff of the office and knowing the person who got transferred, had then forged the letter using NCWC seal.
The suspect received bail on 11 June, and the police are investigating the involvement of other four women named in the case.
