The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) charged five people, including the former Chang gup Naku, his daughter Namgay Wangmo, two elderly citizens of Tsalumaphey and a former land record officer, for forging documents to transfer a tsatong (land without claimant) to Naku’s daughter Namgay Wangmo in 2000.

OAG, while registering the case in Thimphu dzongkhag court yesterday, charged former gup Naku for three counts of forgery, alleging that Naku, while serving as the Chang gup, forged documents to transfer 12 decimal land, which was registered in the name of late Namgay Bida to his daughter Namgay Wangmo.

OAG stated that gup Naku forged documents to claim that his daughter Namgay Wangmo is the niece of Namgay Bida and that the land was inherited.

OAG also charged a 60-year-old Namgay from Tsalumaphey in Thimphu for forging documents to transfer the tsatong land to Namgay Wangmo, signing on behalf of Namgay Bida and for illegal sale of tsatong land. He is also accused of signing on behalf of late Namgay Bida in the court documents while processing the thram.

Former gup Naku’s daughter Namgay Wangmo was also charged for forging documents and illegal sale of tsatong land.

OAG charges state that although the tsatong land was in the name of late Namgay Bida in a place called Tongchen Chemtsekha under thram number 342, gup Naku processed for land transfer near Rechey lhakhang, which is presently in Olakha by faking documents and impersonating his daughter Namgay Wangmo as late Namgay Bida’s niece. The land size was also increased to 33 decimal when it was registered in Namgay Wangmo’s name.

A former gup, Kencho, 79, from Tsalumaphey was also charged for illegal sale of tsatong land, as he signed as a guarantor of the seller although he did not know where the land was and who the seller was.

A former land record officer, Pema Wangdi, was also charged for bribery, as he was alleged of surveying the land for transfer despite knowing that it was not Namgay Wangmo’s land.

OAG submitted that since all the people involved violated the Land Act, they should be penalised in accordance to the law. “The land involved should be resituated as government land.”

OAG also submitted that the buildings constructed on the land should be resituated to the government in accordance to the royal decree of 1984 and government should reimburse the expenditure incurred in the construction. “Namgay Wangmo should also pay a fine of Nu 287,496 to the state for misusing state land.”

Tshering Palden and  Tashi Dema