A police corporal who reportedly abandoned a police vehicle which had a loaded sub-machine gun last Sunday was yesterday placed on $175,000 bail when he appeared before a San Fernando magistrate on various charges. Dressed in a white long-sleeved shirt, black pants and a tie, Cpl Davis Ramsamooj, 44, who is assigned to the Witness Protection Programme, stood with a worried expression on his face when the matter was called around 2.15 pm before Second Court magistrate Alexander Prince.
He was represented by attorney Jason Jackson, while Sgt Wendell Fernando prosecuted for the State. Before the start of the matter, Ramsamooj's colleagues, in an attempt to evade media photographers, drove him directly into the court's garage area and then escorted him into the courtroom via the cell block. Prince, who read out the charges, said that on July 25, Ramsamooj wilfully made a false report relative to the loss of an R Heckler & Koch MPS sub-machine gun valued $11,100, 40 rounds of 9 mm ammunition valued at $79.60 and a Nokia E71 cellphone valued $1,000, all the property of the T&T Police Service.
Prince said on July 25 at North Road, San Fernando, Ramsamooj allegedly did malicious damage to the windscreens of motor vehicle PCJ 759 which belonged to Randy Rampersad to the value of $10,952.11. Also on July 24, at Cunjal Road, Barrackpore, Ramsamooj allegedly failed to secure machine-gun, ammunition and cellphone and left it unattended in a public place or a place to which the public had access. Jackson, in his application for "reasonable bail" said the officer had 22 years' service and had no previous convictions or pending matters.
Prince then placed Ramsamooj on $100,000 bail with a surety or a cash alternative of $15,000 to cover the first two charges and those matters were adjourned to August 6. On the third charge, which Prince said occurred in another jurisdiction, he was placed on $75,000 bail with a surety or a cash alternative of $10,000. That charge was transferred to the Princes Town Magistrates' Court and adjourned to August 03. Afterward, Ramsamooj was driven out the court's compound in a marked police vehicle.
