Chhimi Dema 

In the past eight months, police in Thimphu arrested 17 men for burglary, cattle rustling, and smuggling controlled substances.

Police said that the burglary cases were on the rise this year. There were 70 cases between January and August last year and police registered 75 cases within the same period this year.

On August 25, police caught a man for slaughtering three cattle. The next day the police caught another suspect from his home.

In the past month, police caught seven suspects aged between 25 and 35 years, involved in cattle rustling cases from earlier years. One suspect caught was involved in the August 25 incident.

The police said that the seven suspects in total confessed to killing 28 cattle from 40 missing cattle.

Meanwhile, police also arrested six suspects involved in stealing cash and pieces of jewellery worth Nu 15 million from a house near the Centenary Farmers’ Market in Thimphu on the night of July 26.

The suspects were arrested after a month and a half after the incident.

One suspect was caught in Thimphu, one from Dorokha in Samtse and four suspects from Samtse who were on the run trying to cross the border.

When the police caught them, the suspects misled the police claiming that they lost the dzis (cat’s eye). “Upon x-ray, we found that one swallowed two dzis and two swallowed one dzi each,” a police officer said.

Police also said the burglary was planned and the suspects succeeded only during the fourth attempt.

They said that the suspects were aware of the location and valuables in the safe. “The suspects fetched information from people who worked with the businesswoman.”

Police also arrested a 27-year-old man from Mongar on August 19 for his involvement in 13 burglary cases in Thimphu.

He was also convicted for a similar crime in Trashiyangtse and Pemagatshel four years ago.

A police officer said the suspect turned the camera away before he broke into the houses and offices wherever there was a CCTV camera installed.

Police arrested a 25-year-old man on July 24 and a 31 and a 32-year-old man on July 26 for smuggling controlled substances in the country.

The controlled substance in both the cases was sent by the same Indian merchant as consignments.

The police found that the Bhutanese dealers asked taxi drivers to pick the parcel.

In total, 66,693 SP plus capsules; 7,260 Navy Cut cigarette packets and 2,467 chewing tobacco were smuggled in the country.

Police urged the public to install CCTV cameras, be wary while sharing personal information, and take note of vehicles seen at odd hours in their locality.

Edited by Tashi Dema