Crime: More than a year after police sent bloodstains found on the clothes of a murdered couple in Paro for forensic examination, Paro dzongkhag court had to pass a judgment without the forensic report.

This, according to the court verdict rendered on November 30, was because police did not receive the forensic report and it delayed the court proceedings.

The verdict also stated that court dismissed the need for the forensic report, as the prosecutor, the Office of the Attorney General (OAG), clarified that it is not necessary to have the report since the defendant, Kali Dema Sherpa, confessed to the murder.

Kali Dema Sherpa, 34, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for murdering a couple in Damsari, Paro, on July 1, 2015. She was also asked to pay compensation of Nu 985,750 to the couple’s two children within 10 months. The deceased are survived by two children.

The court verdict stated that the defendant went to the couple’s house with alcohol and murdered them with their belts when they were intoxicated.

While Kali Dema claimed that she killed her husband because she said he murdered her mother and would murder her too, the court dismissed the claim, as the defendant’s siblings submitted before court that their mother died in Samtse and not in Paro. “The siblings have also submitted that Kali Dema Sherpa was not there when their mother died and when they conducted the funeral,” the verdict stated.

The crime was graded as a first-degree felony with a prison term ranging from 15 years to life imprisonment. The court verdict stated that Kali Dema Sherpa was given 30 years imprisonment since she did not have a previous crime record and also because she committed the crime under the influence of alcohol.

Tashi Dema

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