Senior police officers close to the e-mail investigation yesterday maintained they had made contact with Google and had documentary evidence to prove that.The comments came in wake of claims that the police failed to ask Google for assistance in the probe.
The United States-based Internet search giant Google said in its latest transparency report, published on its Web site, that local police investigating the case had failed to make any official request from it for information on the matter stemming from the Section 34 issue last year.When contacted, one officer said: "We did what we needed to do, including asking Google for assistance in this matter and we have the evidence to prove this."
Google's claim also differed from that of former deputy commissioner of police Mervyn Richardson, who maintained last year that he wrote to Google seeking information from its databases on the government officials implicated in the scandal, including Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and several of her top government colleagues.Contacted yesterday, Richardson said he had no comment.
Asked if he was aware whether the police had made contact with Google as part of their investigations, National Security Minister Gary Griffith simply said: "No, he was not aware."In June 2013 Griffith handed over his mobile phone and computer hard drive voluntarily to investigators.To date they have not been returned.
Griffith said yesterday: "From the first ball on the opening day I have been ready and willing to clarify this matter. I personally contacted the police and handed over my electronic devices, as I knew then, as I know now, that I have never been involved... even remotely close to the allegations."Griffith said his concern had always been that a precedent must not be set that anyone could anonymously drop documents in a mailbox and "conveniently" not be charged for wasting police time.
He added: "Such documents are littered with blatant irregularities in a feeble attempt to have it perceived as e-mails and the whole nation becomes affected, based on the mischievous act of a few."The bogus typewritten correspondence also had me in different time zones all over the world on the same day."
Saying he was still prepared to do what was right to reveal that "the matter was bogus," he said: "It is impossible to find evidence of something that never took place. It is incumbent especially on the police commissioner to make a statement."
PNM: Top cop, Griffith must account
The PNM said the latest development should be viewed with urgency and called on acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams and Griffith to make a statement to the nation.Speaking during a break in the Senate yesterday, the PNM's public relations officer, Senator Faris Al-Rawi, said:"If this latest development is in fact true, then the Police Service stands to be indicted for gross negligence if it does not have a very reasonable explanation."
He said the Police Service not only had the ability to directly request information from Google but could also call upon the assistance of the Central Authority through the proper channels."The PNM continues to maintain that the Integrity Commission is the proper authority to conduct this investigation," Al-Rawi added.