The Supreme Court conducted the opening hearing for the former Home Minister, Dasho Sherub Gyeltshen along with four other officials of the Royal Insurance Corporation of Bhutan Limited (RICBL) today. Earlier, the lower courts convicted Dasho Sherub Gyeltshen and the officials of a false vehicle insurance claim worth more than Nu 200,000. They appealed to the supreme court last month.
The appellants submitted several points on why they were not satisfied with the earlier judgments. They claimed that the application for insurance after the accident and the claim for the payment were not false statement. The insurance amount was released by the RICBL as per the estimation made by the State Trading Corporation of Bhutan Limited.
The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) charged the defendants with backdating the insurance policy. However, they stated that the software used for the general insurance business is outsourced abroad and it is impossible for the RICBL to backdate the transaction.
And, with regard to the OAG’s allegation for manipulation of intimation letter, Dasho Sherab Gyeltshen’s Lawyer explained that the intimation was done over the phone which is valid and legitimate as per the company’s Claims Manual.
Also, as per the defendants, the conviction from the lower courts was based on Dasho Sherub Gyeltshen’s statement to the Anti-corruption commission which didn’t mention the location of the accident. Whereas, the commission overlooked the former Executive Director of RICBL’s statement that mentioned the accident location.
The RICBL’s former Executive Director and three officials said that evidence on the case and experts opinion on the entire business process was not taken into consideration. Instead only contradictory, unsubstantiated and vague statements from various sources were used as a basis for conviction.
The lower courts sentenced the former Home Minister to two months in prison for falsely claiming vehicle insurance and the former RICBL officials were sentenced to a month to one year in prison.
Pema Seldon Tshering/Samten Dolkar
