Derek Achong

Se­nior Re­porter

derek.achong@guardian.co.tt

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) has re­versed its re­quest for a busi­ness­woman from south Trinidad to dis­close who was us­ing her ve­hi­cle at the time it was al­leged­ly in­volved in a shoot­ing.

The de­ci­sion fol­lowed the fil­ing of a law­suit last week by at­tor­neys rep­re­sent­ing the woman, whose iden­ti­ty has been with­held due to the na­ture of the mat­ter.

In court fil­ings ob­tained by Guardian Me­dia, the woman’s at­tor­ney, Keron Ramkhal­whan of Ju­ris X Cham­bers, said on Jan­u­ary 17, of­fi­cers at­tached to the Mon Re­pos Po­lice Sta­tion seized her Toy­ota Hilux at Pleas­antville.

More than a week lat­er, the woman was con­tact­ed and in­struct­ed to col­lect the ve­hi­cle from the sta­tion. Up­on her ar­rival, she was served with a no­tice un­der the Road Traf­fic Or­di­nance re­quir­ing her to iden­ti­fy the per­son who was us­ing the ve­hi­cle on the night it was seized. The no­tice said the in­for­ma­tion was be­ing sought as part of an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to a shoot­ing.

Ramkhal­whan al­leged that the of­fi­cer who served the no­tice warned his client she would be charged with shoot­ing with in­tent if she failed to com­ply.The ve­hi­cle was sub­se­quent­ly re­leased, and the woman was not in­ter­viewed in con­nec­tion with the al­leged shoot­ing.

In the law­suit, Ramkhal­whan con­tend­ed the TTPS im­prop­er­ly used the Road Traf­fic Or­di­nance to ob­tain in­for­ma­tion un­re­lat­ed to a traf­fic of­fence.

“In the event that the first re­spon­dent (the in­ves­ti­gat­ing of­fi­cer) has ev­i­dence to sug­gest that the ve­hi­cle was in­volved in road traf­fic of­fences and a shoot­ing in­ci­dent, the po­lice can on­ly is­sue the no­tice for the spe­cif­ic traf­fic of­fences be­ing in­ves­ti­gat­ed,” Ramkhal­whan said.

“The no­tice and/or de­ci­sion is there­fore unau­tho­rised or con­trary to law and there­fore un­law­ful,” he added.

He al­so ac­cused the in­ves­ti­ga­tor of at­tempt­ing to use an in­ves­tiga­tive tool for a pur­pose for which it was not de­signed.

He al­so not­ed that his client de­nied the al­le­ga­tion that her ve­hi­cle was in­volved in the shoot­ing.

“The po­lice of­fi­cers have no ev­i­dence—wit­ness­es, CCTV footage or oth­er­wise—to demon­strate that the ve­hi­cle was in­volved in any traf­fic of­fences at the spe­cif­ic time cit­ed,” he said.

Through the law­suit, the woman sought sev­er­al de­c­la­ra­tions and an or­der quash­ing it. When the mat­ter came up for hear­ing last week, she was grant­ed an in­junc­tion pend­ing fur­ther ju­di­cial de­ter­mi­na­tion.

Fol­low­ing dis­cus­sions be­tween the par­ties, the TTPS agreed to re­scind the no­tice. A con­sent or­der re­flect­ing the agree­ment was en­tered yes­ter­day be­fore Jus­tice Devin­dra Ram­per­sad. Un­der the terms of the or­der, Ramkhal­whan’s client agreed to with­draw the law­suit based on the con­ces­sion.

The woman was al­so rep­re­sent­ed by at­tor­ney An­war Ho­sein. At­tor­neys Tson­da Gayle, Chi­nara Hare­wood and Nao­mi Her­bert ap­peared for the TTPS, while Mary Davis, Make­da Brown-Al­fred and Melis­sa Pa­poon­s­ingh rep­re­sent­ed the Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al.