The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) charged a 25-year-old man from Pemagatshel for breaking into a handicraft shop in Thimphu and stealing Nu 512.

The man will have to serve from five to nine years in prison if the court finds him guilty of the charge. The accused is a repeat offender.

A police patrol team found the man loitering near craft bazaar at 2:55am on June 12 and found an iron rod and a knife while frisking him.

While questioning, the man confessed to police that he broke into a handicraft shop in the area and stole Nu 512.

It was learnt that the suspect dropped out of school in 2007 while he was studying in class VIII and started working in a hotel in Phuentsholing.

He then came to Thimphu. In 2009, the Thimphu dzongkhag court sentenced him to two years for larceny. In the same year, he was sentenced to eight months for burglary. In 2010, he was sentenced to three months in prison for possessing controlled substances. In the same year, he was sentenced to one month for burglary.

In 2011, he was sentenced to one year for possessing controlled substances and in 2013, he was sentenced to six years for larceny and burglary.

The charges stated that the suspect just completed his six-years imprisonment sentencing when he committed the crime. “He had come from Phuentsholing to meet his maternal aunty in Chubachu but since she shifted her house, he couldn’t meet her.”

It stated that he then went to meet a friend in Olakha and walked back to town, took an iron rod and a knife from a construction site and committed the crime.

It was learnt that the suspect stayed in a hotel and did not pay the room and food charges and took the keys with him.

Tashi Dema