The Bhutanese Leading the way.
After more than a month’s delay from when the rape case was first registered by a 17-year-old girl against her step father, the Punakha police have finally sent the rape case to the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) for prosecution.
Following a story by The Bhutanese last week highlighting this case and the month long delay so far, a senior official from the RBP headquarters in Thimphu called up the Punakha police and asked them to charge sheet the case to the OAG.
The senior RBP official said that the Punakha police had been holding onto the case to gather more evidence.
He said the Punakha RBP was instructed that since they already have the statement of the victim and already know the culprit they should charge sheet the case to the OAG for prosecution.
A maternal aunty of the girl also confirmed the development saying that she got a call from the OC a few days ago saying the case is being sent to court.
The matter came to light when the girl ran away from home to her school where she begged the school to take her into the hostel.
The girl was in a highly traumatized state and she talked to the school counselor about the rape by the step father. This was when the entire matter came to light and the police was informed and the police in turn registered a case.
Apart from the girl’s statement the girl herself told her maternal aunty how the step father had assaulted her right after her mother died in 2019.
The victim had lived with her deceased mother who ran a handicrafts shop near Chimi Lhakhang. They had a one-bedroom apartment with the small shop. She lost her mother in 2019 to liver cancer and since then she was living with her step-father and her 4-year-old half brother.
Before the case even came up there were rumors in the community of the step father raping the girl and the step father even filed a defamation complaint which he later withdrew.
The police could prove that the minor girl is sexually active.
The girl is currently being taken of by a school in Punakha where her biological father is a bus driver.
The step father denied committing the crime. His brother is a traffic policeman in the Punakha police and his sister is a RENEW volunteer from Wangdue, but the step father said nothing works when it comes to the law.
The victims late mother came from a humble background with her siblings working in blue collared jobs. They had questioned why the victim’s statement was not good enough to charge sheet the case to court, how the step father got bail after a night in jail and why the police did not contact the maternal aunties who are closer to the victim.
After more than a month’s delay from when the rape case was first registered by a 17-year-old girl against her step father, the Punakha police have finally sent the rape case to the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) for prosecution.
Following a story by The Bhutanese last week highlighting this case and the month long delay so far, a senior official from the RBP headquarters in Thimphu called up the Punakha police and asked them to charge sheet the case to the OAG.
The senior RBP official said that the Punakha police had been holding onto the case to gather more evidence.
He said the Punakha RBP was instructed that since they already have the statement of the victim and already know the culprit they should charge sheet the case to the OAG for prosecution.
A maternal aunty of the girl also confirmed the development saying that she got a call from the OC a few days ago saying the case is being sent to court.
The matter came to light when the girl ran away from home to her school where she begged the school to take her into the hostel.
The girl was in a highly traumatized state and she talked to the school counselor about the rape by the step father. This was when the entire matter came to light and the police was informed and the police in turn registered a case.
Apart from the girl’s statement the girl herself told her maternal aunty how the step father had assaulted her right after her mother died in 2019.
The victim had lived with her deceased mother who ran a handicrafts shop near Chimi Lhakhang. They had a one-bedroom apartment with the small shop. She lost her mother in 2019 to liver cancer and since then she was living with her step-father and her 4-year-old half brother.
Before the case even came up there were rumors in the community of the step father raping the girl and the step father even filed a defamation complaint which he later withdrew.
The police could prove that the minor girl is sexually active.
The girl is currently being taken of by a school in Punakha where her biological father is a bus driver.
The step father denied committing the crime. His brother is a traffic policeman in the Punakha police and his sister is a RENEW volunteer from Wangdue, but the step father said nothing works when it comes to the law.
The victims late mother came from a humble background with her siblings working in blue collared jobs. They had questioned why the victim’s statement was not good enough to charge sheet the case to court, how the step father got bail after a night in jail and why the police did not contact the maternal aunties who are closer to the victim.
