The Bhutanese Leading the way.
The Samdrupjongkhar Dzongkhag Court sentenced a 35 year old man to prison for 32 years and 10 months for rape of a girl below the age of 12 years on 2 November 2021. The initial incident took place when the girl (victim) was 11 years old.
The incident came into light after the victim gave birth a baby boy on 26 May 2020. She gave birth at the age of 12. The incident was then reported to police by gewog officials after which the defendant Karma Dorji was arrested. The case was forwarded to Office of Attorney General (OAG) on 6 July 2020.
The victim was a class VI student in one of the schools. The suspect sexually assaulted her when she was 11 years old.
As per the judgment, they had drawn an agreement where the defendant’s father agreed to pay Nu 40,000 as compensation to the victim’s father. The defendant also agreed to give shares and education to the victim’s son equal to that of his real son, states the judgment.
The defendant was charged for statutory rape and it is graded as first-degree felony as per the section 182 of PCB (amendment) act 2011.
He was charged as per section 181 of the same act whereby the section states that a defendant shall be guilty of the offence of statutory rape, if the defendant engages in any act of sexual intercourse whatever its nature with a child below twelve years.
