Sarpang District Court upheld the Gelegphu Dungkhag Court’s judgement on a US visa scam case. The Gelegphu Dungkhag Court had sentenced a 23 -year-old man to six years and a 34-year-old woman to two years in prison in March this year for larceny by deception.
The man conned more than 22 people claiming to be a public relations officer for the United Nations volunteers at the Delhi Embassy and assuring to help them process US visa. He will have to refund more than Nu 1.1 M to the victims in four months.
According to the judgement, the district court dismissed the appeal since there was no new evidence. However, the district court made a partial alteration in the sentencing of the woman convict.
The woman was sentenced to two years in prison for aiding and abetting the man. However, the district court’s judgment said she cannot pay in lieu of imprisonment, which was earlier allowed by the lower court.
The woman has to refund Nu 981,000 to seventeen victims in four months and Nu 148,500 was also seized from her.
The woman had met the man in Delhi while processing her US visa in 2016. Claiming to be a public relations officer, he helped her fill the forms for the biometric process for the visa interview. However, after her visa got rejected, the two kept in touch through social media.
He assured to arrange an invitation letter for interested Bhutanese to go to the US as a cultural troupe to attend the Annual Woodstock Film Festival. Following this, she looked for 17 people and collected money from them and handed it over to the male convict.
