He claims his hotel in Bumthang has been closed for the last 8 years, mired in controversy, collusion and corruption
Penjore has sought the intervention of the Speaker of National Assembly (NA) in his Bumthang Kuenzang Norling International (KNI) Hotel’s case against Bhutan National Bank (BNB).
In his letter dated October 31, 2024, Penjore rebutted his argument on three main points. The first one is the alteration of judgment in violation of Civil and Criminal Procedure Code (CCPC) Section 114.
The second rebuttal is violation of laws, unlawful transfer of land ownership certificates of his Bumthang Hotel properties to BNB before public auction is completed.
The third rebuttal is against violation of CCPC Section 155 under ‘Doctrine of Estoppel’ which states that “A party is prevented by his/ her own act from claiming a right to the detriment of other party who was entitled to rely on such conduct and has acted accordingly.”
“It is relating to corruption (through collusion with BNB) on the ‘abuse of functions’ by a judge Drangpon Pema Rinzin and the judicial misconduct thereof during the Chief Justice Lyonpo Tshering Wangchuk’s term,” the letter states. Penjore further alleged that Drangpon Pema Rinzin knowingly violated the law, namely, Section 114 of the CCPC which states that ‘no person shall amend or alter a judgment rendered by a competent court except His Majesty the Druk Gyalpo’.
Based on this argument, Penjore claims that the law has been violated and has become very important that the people’s representatives from all 20 Dzongkhags in the parliament come to know about it.
Penjore lamented that his hotel in Bumthang has remained closed for the last 8 years without business. He added that the said Drangpon has illegally closed down his hotel on 9th July, 2016 and transferred the land ownership certificates of the hotel into BNB’s name even before the public auction was completed. The auction, according to Penjore, is still going on.
Drangpon Pema Rinzin’s initial Bumthang Court’s verdict vide No BT-15-74 dated 6/4/2015 categorically mentioned that after the loan overdue interest payments are made, Penjore can continue to run his hotel as it is by paying the monthly EMI thereafter as per the loan agreement.
According to Penjore, Drangpon Pema Rinzin knowingly violated CCPC 114 having altered his own verdict of 6/4/2015 by having made him to pay both interest and principal amount in breach of the loan terms and conditions (Penjore claims he has valid time till 30/9/2028 as per loan agreement to repay the full loan).
“The law has been violated by Drangpon Pema Rinzin as he altered his own judgment No BT-15-74 dated 6/4/2015, that, instead of just paying the loan overdue interest amount of Nu 4.336M as per this 6/4/2015 judgment to, that of, in breach of our loan terms and conditions (that I have a valid time till 30/9/2028 as per our loan agreement to repay my loans) having made me pay both loan principal and interest amount of Nu 25.2684M during his own judgment enforcement time vide verdict No Jathrim 2(43)2016/131 dated 25/2/2016,” Penjore said.
“Moreover, the then Chief Justice Tshering Wangchuk instead of correcting this 25/2/2016 verdict knowingly issued the 4/7/2018 wrong verdict which violated CCPC section 114. Therefore, it is corruption,” Penjore claims.
“They know it’s illegal and yet, they are going ahead with it on one hand and on the other hand, my appeal for justice (I couldn’t get justice from judiciary owing to this corruption) on the subject has been stuck in impasse without any clear directives and decision from the concerned authorities,” the letter read.
Penjore said that he even wrote to BNB to refrain from auctioning his hotel since he is still processing appeals to higher authorities. If BNB continues with this kind of activities, Penjore said it will set a bad precedent for future judges who will be empowered to change their own verdict through corrupt means.
He questioned the legal consequences of this corruption within the judiciary if the parliament does not intervene, or if the matter is left without corrective redressal measures.
Penjore also wrote a similar letter to the ACC Chairperson in September this year. In it, he mentioned that the Bumthang court’s verdict Dated 7/8/2018 worked out hotel KNI’s value at only Nu 33.90 Million, a drastic slump from the value at Nu 59 Million in 2016.
“This is a huge margin within two years’ time. The value should have gone up actually given the steep yearly rise in market prices,” he said.
Having excluded him in the joint valuation exercise process and having lowered the valuation of his hotel properties from Nu 59M to Nu 33.9M by a huge margin of Nu 25M in the short space of time without any concrete basis is a clear act of corruption intent through collusion of court officials with BNB pertaining to abuse of functions, Penjore refuted.
“This is in violation of CCPC Section 155 and therefore, merits review and investigation by ACC under ACC’s Section 58 of Chapter 4,” he said.
ACC Act 2011, Chapter 4 (Corruption offences and Penalties thereof..), Section 58 (Commission amounting to abuse of functions) 58(1) states that “A public servant who knowingly abuses functions or position by performing an act amounting to favoritism, nepotism or patronage, etc in violation of laws, in discharge of his or her functions to obtain advantage for himself or herself or for another person shall be guilty of an offence.”
“What will be the legal consequences from this grave corruption matter within judiciary if left without parliamentary intervention, without parliamentary deliberation/review, without parliamentary investigation, and most importantly, without corrective redressal measures?” questions Penjore.
“What if, because of this injustice, a victim here is left totally alienated on my own to suffer the loss to an annihilation point to disintegrate as a human species if we don’t apply the law equally and correctly-that, a person (judge) having done wrong cannot take advantage of his own wrong and frustrate the lawful trial/ investigation of this serious corruption matter?” Penjore wrote to the Speaker.
Meanwhile, Penjore says that he is eagerly waiting for what the Speaker, and the parliament in particular, have to say about this issue. “Having knocked almost all possible doors open for me, I have faith in the parliament and am eagerly waiting to hear from them.”
Tashi Namgyal from Thimphu
