Bhutan general, judges detained for overthrow plot

THIMPU, Bhutan: Police in Bhutan, the Himalayan kingdom famed for its happiness index, have detained a top general and two judges over an alleged plot to overthrow the country’s top military officer and chief justice.

The allegations about the conspiracy to take over top jobs in the army and judiciary have rocked the tiny country of 750,000 people jammed between India and China that prides itself on its cleancut image.

Former Royal bodyguard commandant Brigadier Thinley Tobgay, Supreme Court judge Kuenley Tshering and top district court judge Yeshey Dorji appeared in court on Wednesday after being detained at their homes.

The three have been accused of plotting to overthrow the country´s top military officer, Lieutenant General Batoo Tshering by implicating him in a corruption scandal.

All were denied bail by the Thimphu district court and remanded in custody until a first formal hearing on February 27. According to reports, Tobgay was alleged to have illegally obtained military documents on the procurement of vehicles from the United Nations.

The Bhutanese newspaper said that while the tender was handled publicly and fairly, the documents were to be used to undermine the position of the military number one. Other reports said the plot between the three men was revealed to authorities by a woman detained a few months ago.

The three “friends” wanted to take on the jobs in charge of the military, as chief justice of the Supreme Court and as attorney general, the reports said.

Batoo Tshering has been Bhutan´s chief operations officer for more than a decade.

The country is known as a tourist paradise in the Himalayas and for its happiness index which was developed in the 1970s after a former king ruled that “gross national happiness is more important than gross domestic product”.

The index seeks to give equal importance to non-economic aspects of wellbeing and elements have since been taken up by leading international economists and politicians.