Three accused in the alleged Trongsa land scam case turned approvers during the two-day witness hearing in the district court, which ended yesterday.
An approver is a person who confesses to committing a crime and gives evidence against his or her accomplices.
The former Nubi Gup Tashi Penden and two former village tshogpas, Kinleyla and Wangchukla were charged for official misconduct in the alleged illegal land transaction case against former Trongsa Dzongda Lhap Dorji and his wife.
During the National Cadastral Resurvey Program (NCRP) in 2010, one of the prime accused Karma Tshetim Dolma, the wife of former Dzongda, had fraudulently registered one additional plot measuring 1.933 acres as GY plot on the already registered substitute land. And substitute land is not eligible for excess government land registration.
The three accused had knowingly endorsed the excess land surveyed and falsely recorded as GY plot.
The three accused are now requesting the court to pardon them after turning into approver according to section 66 of the Penal Court of Bhutan.
The section states a court in order to obtain evidence and testimony against another suspect for the same or a different crime, which is of serious nature may, tender pardon to the defendant incriminated on the same or different offence, allow the defendant to be sentenced for a lesser crime or award the defendant a lesser punishment for the offence charged.
The three are among the ten accused in the alleged land scam case reported to have taken more than a decade ago.
The case concerns the illegal acquisition of 4.73 acres of land at Thumgang under Nubi Gewog in Trongsa by Karma Tshetim Dolma. It also involves the illegal acquisition of another 2.77 acres of land in Taktse.
The case came under Anti-Corruption Commission’s scanner only in 2011 after the landowner Gyalmo from Taktse lodged a complaint to the ACC stating that she did not sell the land to Karma Tshetim Dolma.
The incident took place between 2005 to 2006 when the land acquisition from Taktse, Eusa and Tashidingkha village happened for the establishment of the Institute of Language and Cultural Studies.
The preliminary hearing of the case was conducted on April 20 last year. The court conducted eighteen hearings as of now.
Meanwhile, the court received an order from the Supreme Court to expedite the case.
