Chencho Dema

Punakha—After completing the investigation, the Trongsa Police handed over the alleged child molestation case against Member of Parliament (MP) from the opposition party to the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) on August 9.

A police official said that the MP has been charged with the offense of child molestation.

As per the Penal Code of Bhutan, the offense of child molestation is a fourth degree felony, which has sentencing of three to five years.

The alleged incident, which occurred two years ago, came to light when the victim’s mother sought treatment for her daughter at The PEMA Secretariat, where the incident was disclosed.

The PEMA Secretariat then lodged a complaint with the Trongsa police on July 9.

The mother claimed that the MP molested her 14-year-old daughter two years back when he worked as gewog administration officer of Nubi gewog in Trongsa.

In an earlier interview with Kuensel, the girl’s mother said that the MP had gone inside her house and grabbed her daughter’s left breast. At the time of the incident, the mother was away collecting mushrooms with her friends.

The girl’s family was living in a small house owned by the MP’s elder brother, next to the MP’s house.

The accused MP was arrested on July 24 but was granted bail the same day.

Police said the delay in the arrest was due to the MP’s parliamentary immunity. According to the Parliament Act, MPs cannot be summoned 15 days prior to and 15 days after a parliamentary session. The MP’s parliamentary immunity expired on July 23.

In an earlier interview with Kuensel, the MP denied the allegations. He said that during the time of the incident, he was cleaning the drain outside the house and had gone inside the girl’s house to ask for a hard broom. When he found the girl sleeping with the blanket covered, he pulled the blanket and that’s when he accidentally touched the girl.

Sources told Kuensel that the issue was resolved internally then.

The mother said that the MP gave her daughter a laptop. The MP however told Kuensel that he had given an old laptop to the girl’s family but it had nothing to do with the incident. He said that he also used to give clothes and other items to the family.