Staff reporter

The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) charged a 34-year-old man from Dangling village in Tashicholing gewog, Samtse, for stealing a bolero and selling it off in India last year.

The case registered last month to Dorokha drungkhag court stated that the man, along with a man from Chamurchi in Jalpaiguri, India, stole the parked single-cabin bolero from Basanti in Dorokha on November 3 last year and sold it off across the border.

Dorokha police, while investigating the case, identified the Bhutanese man by tracking his phone number he left with a businessman in Halaley from whom he borrowed a jacket.

The man, who has a university degree from South India, does artworks for the Indian man, who runs a vehicle nameplate shop in Chamurchi.

He claimed that another Indian man is the mastermind behind the crime and he agreed to the plan because of financial issues. He claimed he received Nu 20,000.

While the Bhutanese man was arrested on November 19 last year, the Indian is still at large.

OAG charged the Bhutanese man for larceny as per section 240 of the Penal Code of Bhutan. The sentencing for the offence is value-based and since the single-cabin bolero’s cost in Nu 610,540, the crime was graded a misdemeanor.

It was learnt that the Indian man had a previous criminal record at Samtse dzongkhag court. He was sentenced for larceny in 2004.