The Thimphu District court conducted the last hearing of the defamation case involving a private individual, Penjore today. He is on trial for allegedly defaming the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) on social media.
Claiming his innocence, Penjore submitted three pieces of evidence to the court last month. One of the evidence he submitted pertains to the OAG dropping the charges against seven executive members of the Bhutan National Bank.
The Court ordered the police to submit a justification on this.
Accordingly, the police submitted to the court, the report of the Police investigation that was submitted to the OAG initially. Police also submitted the audit report relating to the BNBL forgery case as ordered by the court.
Penjore submitted a news article by BBS on the conviction of BNBL’s twelve former employees as another evidence. He also submitted the Facebook post he made after the news on the conviction of BNBL employees. He wrote that OAG and BNBL’s top executive members should be made to resign immediately.
Penjore has said that the OAG prosecuted only the former employees of BNBL while dropping the charges against the bank’s committee involved in the recruitment. He said this was done despite the Police recommending two counts of charges; official misconduct, and failure to report the crime against the BNBL executive members.
However, police earlier stated that the OAG followed the due process to prosecute and that submission by the police is only probable charges.
Penjore was arrested and detained for 16 days in May last year after the OAG pursued legal action against him. The case which was registered as a sedition case was dismissed by the district court. The OAG then forwarded a defamation case against Penjore to the Police since it is a petty misdemeanour. The case was registered with the Thimphu District Court in November last year.
Kinley Dem/ Pema Seldon Tshering
Edited by Sonam
