The Bhutanese Leading the way.
Thimphu police apprehended four persons on March 24 for the theft of two elephant tusks, and an additional two persons also involved in the theft on March 25.
Six people arrested include three police personnel, one army personnel, one JSS security guard and one driver. JSS security guard, who was the guard in the house from where the elephant tusks were stolen, is the main suspect. He has allegedly planned the whole robbery.
On the night of March 23, the main suspect broke the window glass of the house in Lungtenphu and stole one of the elephant tusk. The suspect along with his accomplice, the driver, hid the tusk near the house and went in search of a customer.
The suspect also borrowed a phone from one army personnel to take photos of the stolen tusk. The two of them went to Bebena, Junshina to ask the two police (one is his own brother and the second is a friend) personnel’s help in searching for a customer to buy of the tusk.
The two police personnel told authorities that the suspect told them that the tusk belonged to him and was brought from Diafam, Samdrupjongkhar. They informed another of their police friend to help find a buyer, and finally they somehow found one civilian who was ready to buy the tusk. It was then that the suspect revealed that the tusk was a stolen item to his brother.
The suspect along with his accomplices (army man and brother) went to get the remaining tusk from the house in Lungtenphu. Afterwards they dropped the pair of tusks at one of their friend’s (police) place in Kalabazaar.
On March 24, when they were on their way to make a deal, a group of forestry officials caught them from the road above the Memorial Chorten in Thimphu.
The forestry officials, after knowing that it was a case of stolen property, handed over the case to the police, whereby police managed to arrest all six of them. The seventh person, the civilian (buyer), was the informer.
Out of the six, it is alleged that the four had knowledge of the tusks being stolen property while the other two (police personnel) never knew it was a stolen property and was involved in a sales deal for a commission.
The case has been charge sheeted to OAG.
