Resh­ma Ra­goonath

Min­utes af­ter cor­rup­tion al­le­ga­tions against him were dropped for­mer PNM Works Min­is­ter Franklin Khan was over­come with emo­tion, de­clar­ing that the past five years have been "tor­ture for me and my fam­i­ly."

Yes­ter­day, Khan, who was show­ered with hugs and kiss­es from rel­a­tives and sup­port­ers, made the brief state­ment as he emerged from the San Fer­nan­do Mag­is­trates' Court af­ter the charges were dropped. Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions Roger Gas­pard, who ap­peared be­fore Deputy Chief Mag­is­trate Mark Welling­ton, in­di­cat­ed the State could no longer re­ly on the ev­i­dence of its star wit­ness, for­mer PNM coun­cil­lor Dansam Dan­sook. "There­fore, the pros­e­cu­tion wish­es to of­fer no ev­i­dence against this ac­cused," Gas­pard said. The DPP al­lud­ed to cer­tain de­vel­op­ments that hap­pened pri­or to the yes­ter­day's court mat­ter. How­ev­er, he did not di­vulge what were the de­vel­op­ments.

Gas­pard said Dan­sook made "cer­tain ut­ter­ances" which were re­duced in­to writ­ing and, based on those ut­ter­ances, he had launched an in­quiry. "It amounts to a con­spir­a­cy to per­vert the course of pub­lic jus­tice," Gas­pard said. He fur­ther con­tend­ed that based on re­cent de­vel­op­ments, "I do not be­lieve Dansam Dan­sook is the type of wit­ness that the pros­e­cu­tion choos­es to mount any fur­ther pros­e­cu­tion against Franklin Khan." Yes­ter­day's de­vel­op­ment comes two years af­ter for­mer PNM En­er­gy Min­is­ter Er­ic Williams, who was fac­ing cor­rup­tion charges lev­elled by Dan­sook, was freed of all charges. Khan was charged fol­low­ing al­le­ga­tions he ac­cept­ed bribes from Dan­sook in ex­change for con­tracts from 2001 to 2003.

Yes­ter­day, Dan­sook hasti­ly went to his ve­hi­cle fol­low­ing the mat­ter. He told re­porters: "I have noth­ing to say." He spent close to six days un­der in­tense cross- ex­am­i­na­tion from de­fence at­tor­ney Gilbert Pe­ter­son SC dur­ing the pre­lim­i­nary in­quiry and was ex­pect­ed to re­turn to the wit­ness stand yes­ter­day. How­ev­er, Gas­pard ap­peared be­fore Welling­ton and made the sur­prise an­nounce­ment. He apol­o­gised to the court for the ab­sence of lead at­tor­ney in the mat­ter, Queen's Coun­sel Christo­pher Sal­lon. Gas­pard said even though Dan­sook had giv­en ev­i­dence it was in­suf­fi­cient to "mount a pri­ma fa­cie case." Pe­ter­son told Welling­ton the DPP in­formed him of the de­vel­op­ments in the mat­ter.

"I must say it is a com­mend­able po­si­tion to take. I did not ex­pect any­thing else," he said. Khan, who ap­peared teary-eyed, de­clined fur­ther com­ment on the mat­ter and di­rect­ed all ques­tions to his at­tor­ney. Pe­ter­son said it ap­peared that Dan­sook had re­cant­ed on his statu­to­ry de­c­la­ra­tion on which the charges were based. "This is ob­vi­ous­ly a wit­ness on whom the DPP has, in my view, cor­rect­ly con­sid­ered...that he can­not re­ly up­on to ad­vance pros­e­cu­tion against any­one, far more a pub­lic of­fi­cer in pub­lic of­fice," Pe­ter­son said.

He al­so agreed with the DPP's de­ci­sion to launch an in­quiry. "I think it's the prop­er coun­sel. I do not think the DPP has a choice oth­er­wise. I think he is dis­charg­ing his du­ty by com­menc­ing or com­mis­sion­ing a crim­i­nal in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to what he says ap­pears to be a con­spir­a­cy to per­vert the course of jus­tice," Pe­ter­son added.