The High Court yesterday sentenced a man to three years in prison for selling a hired taxi by forging documents. The convict, Tshechi sold the taxi leased by his friend for Nu 350,000. He was arrested in December last year.
The High Court upheld the judgement passed by the Thimphu District Court altering only the time period within which the convict was ordered to pay the compensation.
According to the judgement, impersonating the owner of the Taxi, Tshechi sold the taxi to another person. The taxi was hired by his friend Tshering Dorji who also aided Tshechi in forging the documents. Tshechi also tampered with the registration certificate of the taxi by replacing the owner’s photo with his own.
The court convicted Tshechi of deceptive practice, forgery and tampering with documents.
He was also ordered to pay back the person to whom he sold the taxi within a month from the day of the judgement. The district court earlier ordered Tshechi to pay back within ten days.
His friend Tshering Dorji was sentenced to a year and six months in prison by the District Court. He was convicted of aiding and abetting and breach of trust. However, he can pay in lieu of the prison term. The court also ordered Tshering Dorji to pay Nu 45,000 to the real owner of the taxi since he has not paid hire charges to the owner.
While Tshechi appealed to the High Court earlier this month, Tshering Dorji did not appeal.
BBS requested the Police for the pictures of the convicts but could not get them.
Kinley Dem
Edited by Sonam
