The Office of the Attorney General has earlier charged the woman, who is accused of throwing her newborn from a third-floor hotel room window, with voluntary manslaughter and statutory rape.
However, following a review of the police investigation report, the OAG altered the charge of voluntary manslaughter to murder and the charge of statutory rape to a rape of a child above 12 years of age.
The father of the baby was only 17 when they started their relationship, hence the second charge.
The case was forwarded to the Phuentshogling Dungkhag Court on Monday.
Meanwhile, the charge of aiding and abetting laid against the officiating principal and the teacher of a school in Haa where the woman works as a cleaner has been dropped due to lack of conclusive evidence.
The three shared the same hotel room on the night of the incident.
The woman had delivered the baby boy in the washroom of the hotel. She claimed it was a stillbirth.
However, forensic tests carried out at the Phuentshogling General Hospital had revealed signs of life. The baby’s heart was found normal, which means it’s likely the neonate was born alive.
