The Bhutanese Leading the way.
After one month and nine days, the Forensic unit of the Thimphu national referral hospital (JDWNRH) and the Royal Bhutan Police (RBP) traffic unit received a report on the five samples which were collected from the red Toyota Hilux sent for DNA tests.
The test results will confirm whether it was the detained vehicle which killed 23-year old, Zangmo in an accident on the expressway near the Dhejung Honda showroom.
The reports received were ‘inconclusive’ and both the samples report sent by the forensic and the traffic police were received via mail on 4 December, 2012.
The Superintendent (SP) of the traffics division, Major Pasang Dorji said, “Just because the soft-copy of the DNA report says inconclusive, we are not going to finalize or come to any conclusion. Nothing can be determined from this report. We are going to wait for the final original hard copy, which is yet to be received”.
Asked what the police would do if results in its original copy should say the same, the SP said even then, they would continue to hunt for the suspects till they are caught and brought to justice.
The investigation might take months or even years but the SP ensured that the justice will be delivered to the victim and her family members.
“Justice will be delayed but will not be buried,” the SP Passang said.
The present suspect would become free of charges of suspicion, if the hard copies of the DNA reports tally with what the soft copy reads.
The blood samples were sent for DNA tests to Genetech Laboratory in Sri Lanka by post on 25 October last year by the Thimphu traffic police. A total of five samples were sent for the DNA test.
The Babesa hit-and-run case will set a precedent if solved, the SP said. The case was investigated without any lead, clue or witness, and yet police had reached this far.
“We are the most worried people when the cases are not solved,” the SP added.
This is the only case which is yet to be solved while almost all the other hit-and-run cases across the country have been solved.
On 1 October, the forensic experts collected 10 samples by swabbing from different parts of the Hilux. Three samples had tested positive for the presence of occult blood (presence of blood in the samples taken). The two samples were taken by traffic police.
Findings by the forensic team earlier included that the vehicle was speeding and the injury pattern on the victim confirmed the absence of the brake marks at the scene of accident.
The deceased had succumbed to severe head and chest injuries and died after she reached the emergency ward of JDWNRH. The victim had also sustained injuries on her face and on some parts of the body.
A red Toyota Hilux was spotted on the same night of 17 September along the old swimming pool complex road, the same day when the 23-year, was knocked down near the Dhejung Honda showroom, expressway, Babesa, Thimphu.
When the vehicle was seized, the windshield of the vehicle was found to be smashed.The forensic report stated that the extensive windshield damage and positive test for the blood are indicative that an animate object with a relatively heavy and large surface area had struck the windshield.
The suspect’s vehicle had damages, blood stains, mud-stains which indicated that the vehicles bumper had struck some animate object causing some blood stain to be transferred on to the bumper. And something heavy and blunt had fallen on to its plastic bucket on the front left corner of the luggage bucket causing it to fracture.The blood sample of the deceased’s mother and the blood stains collected from the trouser and shirt of the victim found during the time of the incident were sent along with the three samples to determine the DNA profiling on the suspected vehicle.
The next day the victim was cremated and officials were unable to collect blood sample for the DNA test. The deceased was working as a sweeper with the Honda showroom.
The traffic SP said if the street lights along the expressway were not damaged during the time of the incident and if the lights were working the prime witness of the accident would have easily identified the vehicle which ran over the victim brutally.
Since it was dark during the time of the accident, the witness who was with the victim could not see the vehicle.
Secondly if there were no space created in the green fences of the two expressways, such accidents would have been avoided. People cross the road and at times get knocked down.
It’s a ‘death trap’ for the pedestrians, the traffic SP said.
Thirdly, the SP blamed the driver, who was driving at high-speed and was not able to tell where the people are coming out from.
Chencho Dema / Thimphu
