The Bhutanese Leading the way.
On 30 August 2023 the Samdrupjongkhar police arrested a 35-year-old Indian man for allegedly raping a Bhutanese minor.
The incident happened on 28 August evening when a 17-year-old girl allegedly approached the suspect requesting to purchase a television set on credit.
The suspect, a son of an Indian businessman doing business in Samdrupjongkhar town, had told her to come later to him when his parents left the shop, giving reasons that they wouldn’t agree on selling their products on installment, so she had to go back home. On the way to her house, she had misplaced the cash given to her by sister. She had then headed back to the shop to tell the suspect that she had lost the money given by her sister to buy a television set.
The suspect had then taken the girl who wearing her school uniform to a hotel room to discuss about her issue.
As the minor was in the school uniform some residents upon seeing the girl leaving the hotel then informed the matter to the school principal who in turn notified the girl’s elder sister.
The incident that happened on 28 August was reported to the legal firm only on 30 August and on same day was forwarded to the Samdrupjongkhar Police.
Initially, the minor’s family and the suspect had been to a private legal firm in Samdrupjongkhar to solve the case, wherein the firm forwarded the case to the police.
The minor is undergoing counselling in her school.
The offence of rape of a child above the age of twelve years shall be a felony of the second degree.
