File on Partap sent to the acting DPP

Almost two months after an incident which led to former junior National Security Minister Collin Partap being fired, the file on the investigation has been submitted to the acting Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Joan Paul-Honore. Acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams confirmed this yesterday.

Speaking to the T&T Guardian shortly after sending the file to Paul-Honore at the DPP’s office, Winsure Building, Port-of-Spain, Williams said, “I submitted the file this afternoon (yesterday) to the acting DPP.” Questioned on what recommendations had been put forward, Williams declined to say.

The acting top cop later directed all other questions to the DPP’s office as he joked, “He will be the one to call every day now to find out what’s happening.” The Director of Public Prosecutions, Roger Gaspard, is out of the country and is expected to return next week. The investigation began days after Partap was fired by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar on August 25.

Williams had previously named October 15 as the date when the file would be submitted. Public information officer Sgt Wayne Mystar last Wednesday said one document had been outstanding and that the file would be submitted by the end of last week. The former junior minister in the Ministry of National Security was fired on August 25 less than a day after he was taken to the Belmont Police Station for a breathalyser test after police stopped his car when he left a Port-of-Spain nightclub.