Chencho Dema  | Punakha 

The Punakha court on May 4 sentenced a 40-year-old man from Dagana to one year in prison for throwing his two-year-old niece from a three-storey building in Khuruthang town.

The court found the convict guilty of child endangerment.




Earlier, when the Punakha police had forwarded the case to the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) on March 10 then the defendant was charged with a criminal attempt to murder. 

The OAG charged the convict for child endangerment under section 223 of the Penal Code. The case was chart sheeted to the court on April 17. 




The section 223 of the Penal Code of Bhutan states that a defendant shall be guilty of the offence of endangerment of a child, if the defendant engages in a conduct that would injure the physical or mental condition of a child. 

Endangering a child is a misdemeanour or petty misdemeanour depending on whether there is an aggravating factor. The defendant was charged with a misdemeanour as the child was injured.




The incident happened this February when the victim was two years and two months old. The toddler survived the incident with a fractured left leg. 

The court also ordered the convict to pay compensation to the victim. 

However, the victim’s mother, who is also the convict’s sister, pleaded to the court that she did not want to seek compensation from the convict. 

The convict in lieu of imprisonment can pay compensation. 

He has 10 days to appeal to the High Court.