Sunday, January 27, 2013

The appeal to His Majesty the King with an attachment titled, 'The Case in Question'


To

His Majesty the King
Tashichhodzong, Thimphu
Kingdom of Bhutan

Your Majesty,                                                                                                                  8th Oct. 2012

Prayer for reasonable restrain of OAG

Most humbly and respectfully, I bow before Your Majesty and humbly seek Your Majesty’s benevolent intervention in the matter of Office of Attorney General aiding Dasho Ugen Tsechup Dorji and his colleague Tenzin Lekphell in their heinous attempt to inflict vengeance upon me for preserving humble right to protect my family investment.

As per the OAG Act, it is constituted to manage the official Legal Affairs of the Nation and the Government and “any other issues assigned or referred to by the Druk Gyalpo or the Government.”

It is not supposed to conduct or lead a personal vengeance attack on behalf of socially well placed private individuals to the detriment of another citizen of Bhutan. It is not supposed to misconstrue a formal and official corporate financial transaction into a criminal offence and then use it as an excuse to interfere, intervene, harass and forment prejudice to misdirect judicial process.

The Articles of the OAG Act clearly defines OAG’s responsibilities, empowerment, jurisdiction and immunity. However, the OAG is now exceeding its empowerment. It is now involving in settling private scores of individual citizens.

What OAG is doing is not legal prosecution. It is engaged in illegal persecution on behalf of Dasho Ugen Tsechup Dorji. Yes, I am the present victim so I am to suffer. But in the process of such misuse of power by OAG, the Nation will also be wounded and the good name of His Majesty the King and the Royal Family damaged. It is an act of sabotage in the confidence of the people in their trust of the Institution of Monarchy.
I appeal to Your Majesty to please restrain the OAG and Dasho Ugen Tsechup Dorji. I am not trying to pre-empt judicial process for Dasho Ugen Tsechup Dorji if he wishes to seek judicial redress of his perceived grievance but he should not be using OAG or RBP Institutions to inflict personal vengeance.
As per the Act, the OAG is immune to prosecution by any private citizen or agency. Only His Majesty the King and the Prime Minister have the authority to rein-in OAG to its prescribed responsibility and judicious exercise of its empowerment.

On behalf of Dasho Ugen Tsechup Dorji and his colleague Mr. Tenzin Lekphell, the OAG has trumped up a criminal case against me. The OAG filed the Case with the Chief Judge of Thimphu District Royal Court of Justice on 5th October, 2012 ( My Birthday ) and ordered RBP to produce me before the Court. The Chief Judge has directed the case to Bench III. I have been ordered to await further Court summons. There cannot be legal justice when OAG is involved in prosecution of cases that are outside its mandate.

I make this direct appeal to Your Majesty because I sincerely believe that this collusion between OAG and Dasho Ugen Tsechup Dorji cannot have the endorsement of the national sovereign authority of Your Majesty.  For Your Majesty’s review of the actual case matter, I beg to submit attached herewith a brief titled ‘The Case in Question’. A comprehensive report with supporting documents is already with the Police as per their demand.

I offer my humble respects and remain most grateful for Royal benevolence. I beg to remain a true and dedicated citizen of Your Majesty.

Most humbly


     Sd/-


( Wangcha Sangey ) 
CID No: 10503001432
P.O.Box: 195, Jushina Thimphu.
Tel. # 17667003/ ( 02 )322126.



                                                              The Case in Question

On 1st April, 2012, Dasho Ugen Tsechup Dorji and several other Promoter Shareholders of Bhutan Times Ltd., enforced their plan to surreptitiously take over the Corporation and leave the Minority Shareholders high and dry. They sacked all employees with one month pay in lieu of notice period, made a show of selling the Company assets which they themselves bought and colluded to lease out the publishing of Bhutan Times Sunday Paper to a separate company called IMS owned by several Promoter Shareholders of Bhutan Times Ltd. in their individual capacity and headed by Tenzin Lekphell as CEO.  

Two months after the surreptitious takeover of the Company and destroying the very structure of the old Bhutan Times Ltd. Corporation, the outgoing Managing Director called a Board Meeting in the morning of 31st May, 2012 and an AGM in the afternoon of the same day and confirmed the structural destruction of the old Bhutan Times Ltd. Company.

In the Board Meeting as well as in the AGM on 31st May, 2012, the outgoing Managing Director informed that Bhutan Times Ltd. did not exist anymore. Dasho Ugen Tsechup Dorji who was the Chairman in conjunction with four Promoter Directors including Tenzin Lekphell had closed down the company two months back. Almost all staffs have been sacked and assets sold off. And that Bhutan Times Sunday Paper publication was taken over by another company i.e. IMS for an annual fee of Nu: 3, 00,000.
Bhutan Times Ltd. had two main assets :

1) The well known brand, ‘Bhutan Times Sunday Paper’. This has been hijacked by Dasho Ugen Tsechup Dorji and Tenzin Lekphell under the guise of IMS.
2) The Bhutan Times Printing Press at Jemina. This Printing Press was leased to Mr. Kinga at an annual rental fee of Nu: 20 Lakhs for a period of 10 years beginning June, 2009.

Dasho Ugen Tsechup Dorji, Tenzin Lekphell and few other Promoters colluded together to cancel the Lease Agreement and instead sold the Printing Press to the same person Mr. Kinga for a total price of Nu: 29 Lakhs. Mr. Kinga is related to few of the Promoters. Can any Corporate crime be so heinous then selling the Printing Press that was fetching an annual rental income of Nu: 20 Lakhs being sold for Nu: 29 Lakhs only? The building that housed the Printing Press was rented out to the same person Mr. Kinga at Nu: 15,000 a month. In other words, the Promoters in collusion with Mr. Kinga now possess a Printing Press at a tiny fraction of its original cost.

The effectiveness of any protest in either the Board Meeting or AGM forums convened on 31st May, 2012 against such an illegal and dictatorial decision was two months too late. The crime perpetrators had devalued the assets of the Company and bought the same directly or indirectly for themselves. The structure of the old Bhutan Times Ltd. Corporation had been totally dismantled.

I felt disgusted and deeply wronged. Previously in 2009, this same group of Promoter Shareholders had caused the near bankruptcy of Bhutan Times Ltd. and I had to spend 9 months of painful and frustrating time bringing the Corporation to a sound financial footing. And now after 2 years, the Corporation had been surreptitiously dismantled to suit the greed of the few. However, for so many reasons including the social cost and pressures, I felt that a legal recourse to reconstruct Bhutan Times Ltd. Corporation was out of the league of any ordinary common person of my status and resource. At that time I did not comprehend the full extent of Dasho Ugen Tsechup’s personal role in the surreptitious takeover by Promoters. Much later in the last week of June, I was shown an email exchange between the previous MD Kaka Tshering and Dasho which revealed the full extent of latter’s involvement.

There was no other recourse except to exercise my right to claim back the investment of my family. Sometime back, during the 3rd AGM in May, 2010, a decision had been made whereby if the Promoters who owned 83% of the Company took over the Corporation then the Minority Shareholders who had bought the Company shares from the stock market could exercise their option to either join the Promoters or have their shares bought back by the Company.

I had informed the same AGM that incase of takeover of the Corporation by the Promoters themselves, my family’s shares shall be surrendered to the Corporation under the buyback arrangement. This proposal was accepted and endorsed by all the members. And a supplementary legal document dividing the company between two groups of promoters was executed. On 1st April, 2012, Dasho Ugen Tsechup Dorji and a group of Promoters had decided to jointly take over the Company but in a very surreptitious manner.

In keeping with the decision of the 3rd AGM and the supplementary Legal Agreement executed by the Promoters, I processed for the buyback arrangement for my family shares of Bhutan Times Ltd. I surrendered the original Share Certificates of my family to the stand-in Managing Director cum Finance Manager and he sanctioned the par value of Nu: 27, 39,900 payment. In addition Nu: 54, 798 that had been withheld by the Corporation was also released back to my family. All necessary transaction formalities were completed as per general norms of the Corporation. It was totally legal and official.

Bhutan Times Ltd. Management had conducted similar transactions before. That was how Dasho Ugen Tsechup Dorji became a Promoter of Bhutan Times Ltd. in place of Mr. Tashi Wangdi. That was how Mr. Tenzin Rigden’s dues were adjusted by the Corporation buying back his shares in the Company worth Nu: 40 Lakhs.

However, it seems that Dasho Ugen Tsechup Dorji and Tenzin Lekphell did not even want to honour the buyback arrangement passed by the AGM. They expected my family who owned 6.84% of the company to simply surrender under duress and walk away empty handed. So they hired a legal firm to file a trumped up charges against me to the Royal Bhutan Police instead of to a Royal Court of Justice. He chose to take his grievance to the Royal Bhutan Police and to OAG instead of the Royal Court of Justice because he would have better success as now proven at utilizing their arbitrary powers to his benefit.  As he had planned, the Royal Bhutan Police and subsequently the Office of Attorney General have lent themselves as his tools to white wash his criminal deeds and attempt to penalize me for daring to exercise my humble legal right to protect my family investment.  With God and the King as my witness, I pray that Justice will ultimately prevail because the buyback arrangement of my family shares by the Company is as per the decision of AGMs and commitment made by all the Shareholders especially the Promoters.

If Dasho Ugen Tsechup Dorji or any other individual wants to get the Royal Court of Justice to address their perceived grievance against me, that is their right. I shall respect the due process of Legal Justice. But why are RBP and OAG intervening on behalf of Dasho Ugen Tsechup Dorji and misusing their powers to settle his personal score with a private citizen?

The RBP called me and asked for explanation. I submitted a full and factual account with all official documentary evidences. Then OAG took over the case and filed a court case against me on behalf of Dasho Ugen Tsechup and Tenzin Lekphell. The OAG is lending its full official support to Dasho Ugen Tsechup Dorji, Tenzin Lekphell and few other Promoters who are the real corporate crime perpetrators and persecuting me to submission and silence. Such blatant prejudiced actions of OAG lead to legal injustice. And further slurs the image of the Royal Family and corrupts the pureness of the Sacred Royal Image. OAG needs to be restrained to perform within the empowerment of OAG Act and only His Majesty the King and the Prime Minister have the necessary authority to do so.

Therefore, I am being compelled to bring this atrocious deed of OAG to the kind attention of His Majesty the King and the Hon’ble Prime Minister.


No comments:

Post a Comment