Thimphu police detained the 56-year-old grandmother of the four-year-old boy whose body was recovered from the bank of Wangchhu below Terma Linca resort in Thimphu on April 28 and charged her for involuntary manslaughter.

Thimphu city police officials said they detained the woman on May 28 and forwarded the case to the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) on June 5.

While police officials refused to provide details, it was learnt that the woman, in her statement to police, claimed that although she and the grandson attempted to commit suicide by jumping in the Wangchhu on April 27, the river only washed away the boy and Terma Linca resort officials rescued her.

The boy went missing on the afternoon of April 27, following which the family had filed a missing person case with the police. The boy’s mother made a plea on Facebook.

Police, on that same day, rescued the woman after they received information from Terma Linca resort staff that a woman was in the Wangchhu around 3pm

.

The boy’s relatives, who are also related to the woman, came to take the woman home.

It was learnt that the woman was the last person to have been with the boy.

The police, after learning that the boy was last seen with her, interrogated the woman and around 3am on April 28, she told the police to look for the boy near the river.

In an earlier interview, Thimphu city police said that the woman kept giving different versions of the story to police. “She also claimed that she has mental problems,” a police officer then said. Police then referred the woman to psychiatrists to establish her mental condition.

Psychiatrists refused to share information on her mental condition with media then, claiming it is confidential.

Dechen Tshomo

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