Police Commissioner Gary Griffith has assured an enquiry is being done on yesterday’s raid at the home of former attorney general Anand Ramlogan’s housekeeper and results are expected soon, UNC MP Roodal Moonilal has said.
“... And Griffith said he’ll take whatever action he deems necessary,” Moonilal told Parliament reporters yesterday.
Moonilal said the raid prompted him to call Griffith about his concern that there may be rogue police elements, adding he asked Griffith to probe the circumstances surrounding the raid. He also wants the Professional Standards Bureau and Police Complaints Authority to conduct probes into the raid.
“The lady - my constituent - publicly said officers were snarling at her and insulting her, telling her to ‘call Ramlogan’ as he ‘had a house built from stolen money’. Those are very alarming statements,” Moonilal said.
“If true - and she has no reason to lie- it speaks of a gross, dark macabre political conspiracy involving police officers and police could lose all power to prosecute matters, even if they may have grounds, as they may have been involved in a political manipulative process.”
Moonilal explained that he “called the Commissioner around 9 am and he wasn’t aware of the ‘raid’. He said Southern Division commander Zamsheed Mohammed wasn’t aware also. That by itself speaks to a challenge, as it appears there’s a rogue element in the police service that’s outside the command of senior officers and the Commissioner’. That has to be dealt with as priority, otherwise there’ll be complete loss of faith in the service.”
He said he told Griffith the police service should have a chain of command where seniors should be aware of what units do.
“It’s not a question of interfering but of being aware. When things go wrong, the public looks to him, not any task force head and he has to answer,” he said.
He said while he understood a small quantity of “what appears to be an illicit substance” was found at the home, “one has to even wonder at that...”