The Bhutanese Leading the way.
An eight year old rape victim’s mother is not happy with the decision made by the Office of Attorney General (OAG) on dropping the case due to lack of evidence. She wants to re-appeal to OAG to seek justice for her daughter.
On February 14 at around 8:30 pm, the victim’s mother lodged a complaint against a 44-year-old man stating that he raped her 8-year-old daughter 25 days ago. The man is the cousin sister’s husband. The victim’s mother was out of Thimphu for more than a month with official work, whereby she kept her daughter at her cousin sister’s place in Taba.
On February 12, the cousin sister and her husband had some domestic problems and the suspect’s wife was admitted in hospital for medical reasons. On February 14, the victim along with her mother went to hospital to drop lunch for the patient.
After reaching back to Taba in the suspect’s house, the victim’s mother noticed her daughter was experiencing difficulty while urinating. Upon enquiry on the situation, the victim had finally said that she was raped by the cousin’s husband more than 20 days ago.
Upon interrogation with the victim, police said that she was taken 150 meters away from the suspect’s house to help him collect some wood. After reaching that area, he raped her with her hands tied with a tyre tube rubber. It was found that the suspect also covered the victim’s mouth.
During the night of the incident, the suspect’s wife saw a bloodstain on one side of her pants but the victim refused to tell her because the suspect warned her to keep the rape a secret.
Police said that they have sent the girl for a medical examination, whereby it was found that there was no forceful sexual contact but there was circumstantial evidence. Police also said that he was arrested on February 14 and he had denied the charges.
With circumstantial evidence, police charge sheeted the case to OAG whereby OAG has dropped a case, as they did not have any direct evidence.
An OAG official said that they had to drop the case because there is no direct evidence. To prove a rape they have to prosecute based on the medical evidence. He said that the result of medical examination was negative as there is no forceful sex nor was there any genital injury.
He also said that the evidence is very weak and there was no eyewitness. “If RBP happens to find any additional evidence then we will relook into it,” he said.
Meanwhile, the victim’s mother said that she always waited for the medical result but it is disheartening that the case is dropped and she is not happy with the decision.
“I am not saying that police and OAG didn’t investigate the case, they did, but somehow and somewhere the man did something wrong to my daughter. The Police were supportive and gave me a helping hand but I want a case filed,” she said.
She said, “I was shocked when my daughter shared the incident with me, she was not ready to share at first because she was scared as he already warned her to keep shut. I can’t make sure that he definitely raped my daughter but there is something he did to her.”
She also said that the medical report turned out to be negative and it might be because the examination was done after 25 days of incident. Though the result turned out to be negative, there was an eye witness who saw the victim being taken by the suspect during the time of incident.
“My daughter is just 8 years old and I don’t think she will lie on such issues. She might not have been raped but either he has attempted to do it or molestation was done,” she said.
She said that, “I will re-appeal to OAG and will make him guilty of what he did. He should not be freed easily, he should be charged for his wrong doing.”
