Thimphu District Court sentenced Naku- the former gup of Chang Gewog under Thimphu Dzongkhag to two years in prison.
The 79-year-old man was convicted of encroaching 46 decimal of government land in 2001.
The judgement passed on Thursday orders the convict to pay fine of Nu 400724.40 and the Office of the Attorney General to confiscate the encroached land.
The convict had surveyed the 46 decimal of the public land at Tshalumarphey and registered it in his name.
As per the judgment the convict had bought the land from Namgay, son of Late Namgay Lham.
She had received the land as a substitute land for her land in Punakha, which was acquired by the government for construction of a mitigation wall.
But as per investigations, Late Namgay Lham was to be substituted with excess land near her land in Thimphu.
However, since the excess land wasn’t enough to be substituted, the land office decided to substitute Dralha’s excess land(which is not included in his land ownership certificate) to her.
But before the land was measured and handed over to her, the former gup had purchased the substitute land from her son.
Later, instead of surveying Dralha’s excess land, the former gup had surveyed government land and claimed it.
The judgment says as per the land act, land transactions should be thoroughly verified by the court of law and processed by the home ministry, only after which a person can register the land.
But these procedures were not followed at all.
Nevertheless, the judgment spells out that the convict can pay in lieu of his prison term.
If unsatisfied with the judgment, both the parties can appeal to the higher court within ten working days from the day the judgment was pronounced.
