The Thimphu District Court has convicted four men from India in a kidnap case and sentenced them to twenty-three-and-a-half-years in prison.
The court passed the judgement last Friday.
The convicts, aged 28 to 32, are from Chirang District in the Indian State of Assam.
The four kidnapped three Bhutanese including a 12-year-old physically challenged boy from Samtenling in Gelegphu on 22 February, 2016.
They released the boy the next day but held the other two captive. The convicts then called the parents of one of the captives and demanded a ransom of Nu 20 M.
The parents bargained with the kidnappers and paid Nu 2 M after which the victims were released.
But the kidnappers were arrested by police in March 2016.
The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) charged them with eight various counts of charges- kidnapping, illegal possession and pointing of a firearm, display of weapon, trespass, extortion, battery and harassment.
The judgement stated that the parents of the captives have been able to get back Nu 963,000 paid in ransom from the kidnappers. The court ordered the kidnappers to refund the remaining amount of Nu 1,037,000 within six months from the day of judgement.
The men committed the crime with six other accomplices who are being prosecuted at a Chirang Court in Assam.
The Thimphu District Court and not the Gelegphu Dungkhag Court took up the case for security reasons. An approval was sought from the Supreme Court to prosecute the case at the Thimphu District Court.
