Ex-AATT boss on fraud charges

Nursing a broken foot and walking with the assistance of a cane, former acting general manager at the Airports Authority (AATT), Dayanand Birju, appeared in a Port-of-Spain magistrate’s court yesterday charged with uttering a forged document.  Birju is alleged to have uttered a forged document from the University of Massachusetts, Boston, USA, on August 8, 2012, for a bachelor of science in computer science dated May 28, 1988, at Piarco, knowing it to be false and with intent to defraud. Birju appeared before Chief Magistrate Marcia Ayers-Caesar and was represented by Rosario Sookdeo. 

Birju, who was granted $200,000 bail by Justice of the Peace Ackbar Khan on May 10, had that bail revoked by the court, which ordered that he should be granted bail in the same sum with two conditions attached—reporting to the San Fernando Police Station twice a week and surrendering his passport. Ayers-Caesar revoked the bail because there was a clerical error in the arrest warrant and the bail bond, which excluded the conditions for bail.

Sookdeo asked that the bail conditions be varied, as his client had a broken foot and could not wear any footwear. Ayers-Caesar said she was assured that the necessary accommodation would be made for Birju, who throughout the proceedings sat upright and looked straight ahead, while three relatives huddled together on a bench behind him. The case was transferred to the Arima Magistrates Court and adjourned to May 28. (JL)