The Bhutanese Leading the way.
The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) on 2nd April, 2026 charge sheeted Kelden Dorji (20) and Dorji Ganzin (21), also known as Cutie, before the Thimphu District Court in connection with the Thimphu stabbing case, while the separate Paro stabbing case involving the same individuals is yet to be charge sheet.
According to the OAG, Kelden Dorji has been charged with aggravated battery, an offence that carries a sentence ranging from a minimum of one year to less than three years imprisonment.
Under Section 158 of the Penal Code of Bhutan (PCB), a person is guilty of battery if the person “purposely uses physical force of an adverse nature on another person.”
Further, Section 159 states that the offence shall be graded as either a petty misdemeanor or a misdemeanor if aggravating circumstances are present.
The OAG clarified that while Section 159(a) treats battery as a petty misdemeanor where the injury is minor or non-grievous, Section 159(b) upgrades the offence to a misdemeanor where aggravating circumstances exist which is in the current case.
In this case, the aggravating circumstances cited include grievous injury, use of a weapon, and gang fight, leading to the aggravated battery charge against Kelden Dorji.
Meanwhile, Dorji Ganzin (AKA Rapper Cutie) has been charged under accomplice liability, which under Section 64(a) of the PCB carries a sentence one degree lower than that awarded to the principal accused (Kelden Dorji).
Section 64 states that a defendant is an accomplice if the defendant purposely or knowingly engages in conduct that helps another person commit a crime.
The OAG also said that they did not enhance the charges under Section 15(c) of the Penal Code, despite Kelden Dorji’s prior criminal record, because the earlier offence had occurred when he was a minor.
According to the OAG, Section 236 of the Child Care and Protection Act of Bhutan (CCPA) requires that offences committed while a person is a minor be expunged from the record.
This chargesheet relates specifically to the Thimphu incident that occurred on the same night as the Paro stabbing case on 7th December, 2025, which had earlier drawn widespread public attention after videos of the altercation circulated online.
As previously reported by this reporter, the two accused were linked to multiple incidents that unfolded across Paro and Thimphu on the same night, with police earlier indicating that the cases were connected through overlapping suspects however, different victims.
In the earlier report, police sources had identified Kelden as the alleged principal suspect in both the cases.
However, the Paro stabbing case, in which a 25-year-old victim sustained grievous injuries including partial finger amputations after undergoing two surgeries, has yet to be charge sheeted.
The distinction between the two cases is significant, as both accused are involved in separate proceedings in Thimphu and Paro arising from incidents on the same night. Before these two incidents occurred, an altercation is said to had happened inside a club in Paro where the rapper was performing.
The Thimphu case has now formally entered court proceedings, while developments in the Paro case are still awaited with possibility of charge sheet in the coming week.
