Update: A 21-year-old man who was caught on the Thimphu national referral hospital’s CCTV camera on January 24 was apprehended in the early hours yesterday by hospital security guards.

The culprit was caught near Kuensel Corporation and has been handed over to the police.

The hospital’s head guard, Tashi Tshering, who nabbed the culprit, said the suspect had entered the hospital at around 2:51am from the emergency ward.

A guard on duty, who saw the suspect, alerted the head guard.

Four guards present at the compound then went to check the ward, the culprit was found pretending to be an attendant of one of the patients in the maternity ward.

Suspecting a foul play, the guards accompanied him to the ward, where the suspect went and woke one of the attendants calling him as his brother. The guards still suspecting, questioned the attendant to confirm.

Deprived of sleep for a couple of days, the attendant could not recognize the suspect on the first look. However, upon repeated questioning from the guards, the attendant said that he didn’t know the person who was calling him as his brother. By then the culprit had ran away again.

Tashi Tshering said that the guards chased him till Changzamtok but couldn’t catch him. The four guards divided themselves into two groups and started the search from Lungtenzampa and Changzamtog areas.

At around 5am, the culprit was seen walking near Kuensel office, where he was caught.

“I was sure, it was the culprit and jumped on him,” said Tashi Tshering.

According to police, the culprit is an unemployed youth and has confessed to the crime. Police said that the culprit had sold the mobile phone that he stole on January 24 to an unknown person at Nu 4,000.

The culprit has record of larceny in the past.

Tashi Tenzin