A group of 30 people, who were supposedly conned by Tenzu Consultancy, say the Thimphu District Court is refusing to register their case. The court has apparently asked them to first locate the consultancy’s owner, who had promised them jobs in Malaysia. The owner is said to be at large.
The court’s law states that a defendant has to be brought to the court within 108 days after the case is first registered.
One of the people who was conned, Karma said if a person violates a law and hides for 108 days, the court will simply dismiss the case giving way to more crimes.
“People were conned by Tenzu consultancy and it violated the license law. The law states that consultancies cannot exceed Nu 70,000 per head as fee but it exceeded and it is a crime.”
Karma said police should support them in finding the culprit. He said they had gone to the police but were told it is a civil case and that a court has to deal with it.
The labour ministry, on the other hand, had suspended the consultancy’s license.
Tashi Phuensum Dorji, who was also supposedly conned, says the labour ministry should check the capability of an individual to handle a license before issuing it.
“I deposited Nu 280,000 in order to work in South Korea but the consultancy owner sent us to Macau in Hongkong, instead.”
He also said he had to deposit additional Nu 70,000 as airfare. “Tenzin Consultancy said the employer in Macau would pay us Nu 120,000 when the actual pay was USD 400.”
Tashi Phuensum Dorji said he was assigned as a domestic help for a week in Macau. “After a week, we were again asked to go to Singapore bearing all the expenses ourselves”.
Upon reaching Singapore, eight of them had to rent a hotel room for more than a month. They had to bear all the expanses. Tashi said they could not return to Bhutan as they did not have return tickets.
Tashi said it has been about year since they had lodged a complaint with the labour ministry.
The labour ministry’s legal officer said they forwarded the case to the police but the police had forwarded it to court.
