Samdrup Jongkhar District Court sentenced a 38-year-old man from Trashi Yangtse to three years in prison for the offence of criminal nuisance. He was convicted of spreading the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) to two women.
The Section 410, Penal Code of Bhutan states “A defendant shall be guilty of the offence of criminal nuisance, if the defendant knowingly or recklessly creates or maintains a condition including spreading of dangerous diseases that causes injury or endangers the safety or health of an individual or the public.”
The judgment passed yesterday also ordered the convict to undergo the HIV treatment while serving his prison term as per the prison act.
According to the judgment, the convict had a physical relationship with two women in January and April this year and spread the HIV infection. The convict neither informed his partners about his disease nor used any contraception. Both the women were later detected HIV positive during a medical examination.
According to the chargesheet, both the wives (Ex-wife & present wife) of the convict are patients of HIV. The convict was diagnosed with HIV in 2017 and was undergoing medical treatment under the counseling of the Health Ministry ever since.
The convict was arrested in April and the court gave him concurrent sentencing of three years in prison. The sentence is non-compoundable.
