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Tuesday, July 29, 2025

Panday: Investigate alleged tip-off

by

2141 days ago
20190917
Attorney Subhas Panday speak during the press conference at his office on Gordon Street, San Fernando, yesterday.

Attorney Subhas Panday speak during the press conference at his office on Gordon Street, San Fernando, yesterday.

KRISTIAN DE SILVA

For­mer Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Sub­has Pan­day is ques­tion­ing why Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley did not re­port to po­lice, Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar's al­leged tip-off of the im­pend­ing ar­rest of Port-of-Spain South MP Mar­lene Mc­Don­ald.
Speak­ing at his San Fer­nan­do law cham­bers to­day, Pan­day said that un­der Sec­tion 51 of the Pro­ceeds of Crime Act (POCA), Per­sad-Bisses­sar's ac­tion would have con­sti­tut­ed a crime.
Sec­tion 51 (1) states that a per­son com­mits an of­fence if he knows or sus­pects that a po­lice of­fi­cer is act­ing or is propos­ing to act in con­nec­tion with an in­ves­ti­ga­tion, which is be­ing or is about to be con­duct­ed in­to mon­ey laun­der­ing and he dis­clos­es to any oth­er per­son, in­for­ma­tion or any oth­er mat­ter which is like­ly to prej­u­dice that in­ves­ti­ga­tion or pro­posed in­ves­ti­ga­tion.
Mc­Don­ald, the for­mer Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion Min­is­ter, was charged last Au­gust with de­fraud­ing the State and mis­be­hav­iour in pub­lic of­fice. In the Par­lia­ment last week, Row­ley re­vealed that Per­sad-Bisses­sar told Mc­Don­ald of her ar­rest, a month be­fore it hap­pened. His rev­e­la­tion was sup­port­ed by At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Faris Al-Rawi.  A day lat­er, Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Gary Grif­fith dis­put­ed a leak with­in the Po­lice Se­vice, say­ing that sev­er­al weeks be­fore the ar­rest, there was no new ev­i­dence that war­rant­ed Mc­Don­ald's ar­rest. The UNC has ac­cused the Gov­ern­ment of ly­ing, ques­tion­ing whether the state­ment was a ploy to help Mc­Don­ald es­cape pros­e­cu­tion.
For Pan­day, these al­le­ga­tions should be in­ves­ti­gat­ed.
"Hav­ing ob­tained knowl­edge of an al­leged crim­i­nal of­fence be­ing com­mit­ted, why did you not up­hold the law and cause an in­quiry in an at­tempt to bring the al­leged per­pe­tra­tor to jus­tice? Did your ac­tions or lack there­of amount to the of­fence of mis­be­hav­iour in pub­lic of­fice and the po­lice should in­ves­ti­gate? Why did you not wait for a month? The be­hav­iour of the gov­ern­ment would be tan­ta­mount to mis­be­hav­iour in pub­lic of­fice.
"The Prime Min­is­ter must tell the na­tion when did he be­come aware of this in­for­ma­tion of the al­leged call of the Leader of the Op­po­si­tion to Min­is­ter Mar­lene Mc­Don­ald," Pan­day said.
He al­so ques­tioned why Row­ley used par­lia­men­tary priv­i­lege to make such a se­ri­ous state­ment. He said what the Gov­ern­ment did was an at­tempt to un­der­mine the in­tegri­ty of the Po­lice Ser­vice as it in­sin­u­at­ed there was a leak. He said the Po­lice Ser­vice is an in­de­pen­dent or­gan­i­sa­tion and must not al­low it­self to be bul­lied by any­one.


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