The Phuentshogling Dungkhag Court has sentenced a 59-year-old man to 14 years in prison for raping a 12-year-old girl. The judgment was passed last month. The judgment states that the convict, the child’s uncle, raped her multiple times between 2022 and 2023.
As per the judgment, the convict cannot pay in lieu of a prison term. He also has to pay a compensation of Nu 200,000 to the child within three months.
According to the judgment, the convict began touching the child inappropriately after she and her mother moved in with him in 2021.
In February 2022, the convict is said to have taken the child for a walk, where he raped her. Since then, the convict frequently raped her, which ended only when she moved to Nganglam with her sister by the end of 2023.
The sister, noticing a change in her sibling’s behaviour, asked her and reported it to Nganglam Police. The Nganglam Police then forwarded the case to Phuentshogling Police in February, last year.
The child in her statement said that she was forced to take medication when she informed the convict that she had missed her menstrual cycle.
As per the judgment, the convict threatened the child not to tell anyone about the incidents.
The judgment stated that the court rejected the convict’s claim of the act being consensual as she is a child.
Kinley Dem, Phuentshogling
Edited by Sangay Chezom
