HC rejects appeal to reduce life sentence
Twenty-two-year-old Sangay Thinley was involved in a case where he, along with two others, Tshering Dhendup and Yigay, had robbed two chortens in Wangphu gewog. Samdrupjongkhar police investigated the robbery, after the gup informed them about a possible break-in earlier this year.
Court officials said that Sangay Thinley had confessed to having vandalised four chortens in Wangphu and Gomdar in Samdrupjongkhar in the summer of 2004 alone. He was planning to buy a DCM truck with the money after selling the antiques. He told court officials that he was lured into vandalising chortens because of the popular belief that they held priceless objects like dzee, which fetched good easy money.
The high court told Sangay Thinley’s mother, who appealed for a decrease in his prison term, that they could not do anything as he had already confessed to the crime. The court suggested that they appeal to the Gyalpoi Zimpoen’s office. The mother had appealed saying that he is the only son to look after her.
District court drangpons told Kuensel that chorten vandalism was a severe crime and, according to the penal code of Bhutan, the convict could face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
More than 50 percent of the 10,000 registered chortens in the country have been vandalised so far. About 117 people have been convicted and are serving life imprisonment for chorten and lhakhang desecration and sale of antiques.
