Kelzang Wangchuk | Samdrupjongkhar

On Monday, the Samdrupjongkhar dzongkhag court sentenced a 26-year-old man to three years’ imprisonment for illegal possession of a firearm and hunting wild animals. The sentence is non-compoundable.

The court also sentenced the defendant’s two friends to six months’ imprisonment each for hunting wild animals.

The verdict stated that although the homemade gun (khaduwa) belonged to the defendant’s father, he didn’t know that his son had taken it for hunting on the night of the incident.

According to the judgement, although the defendant’s father has a valid license for the firearm, the court fined him Nu 1,000 for not taking care of it properly.

The case first surfaced when officials from the Samdrupjongkhar Forest and Park Services Division received information that the three men had killed a deer at Gayzor on April 6.

A team of forest officials who investigated the case recovered a deer skin, seized a firearm from the suspects, and arrested them. The suspects used a muzzleloader rifle to kill the deer.

Forest and park services officials forwarded the case to the police on April 29 because the suspects used a firearm to hunt, which is against the Firearms and Ammunition Act of Bhutan 1990.

The officials also handed the skin and the firearm, the khaduwa, over to the police.

Police investigation revealed that the 34-year-old and the 29-year-old men went to the defendant’s house on April 6 after telling his two friends that he needed to maintain his father’s khaduwa.

Since his two friends knew that the defendant’s father was not at home that day, they discussed hunting animals at Gayzor around 8:30pm to 9pm.

The 34-year-old man killed a barking deer. The suspects took it to the defendant’s house and divided it the next day.