Derek Achong

An act­ing Su­per­in­ten­dent, who was one of two po­lice of­fi­cers de­tained as part of an on­go­ing probe in­to al­le­ga­tions of cor­rup­tion in the is­su­ing of Firearm User’s Li­cens­es (FULs), was ex­pect­ed to be charged late last night or over the week­end.

Yes­ter­day, at­tor­ney Dereck Bal­li­ram, who is rep­re­sent­ing the of­fi­cer, who can­not be iden­ti­fied un­til he is of­fi­cial­ly charged, threat­ened to file a habeas cor­pus law­suit if he was not re­leased from cus­tody by 3 pm.

Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands that Po­lice Ser­vice le­gal of­fi­cer Adi­ta Ram­du­lar re­spond­ed to the cor­re­spon­dence around 4 pm and called on Bal­li­ram to hold off on fil­ing the law­suit un­til de­tec­tives of the Pro­fes­sion­al Stan­dards Bu­reau (PSB) com­plet­ed their in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

Ram­du­lar claimed that in­ves­ti­ga­tors were meet­ing with Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions (DPP) Roger Gas­pard, SC, for ad­vice on pos­si­ble charges, which were like­ly to be laid im­mi­nent­ly.

“There­fore, in the cir­cum­stances please al­low us the am­ple abil­i­ty to com­plete this spec­i­fied process and lay the rel­e­vant charges, so ad­vised,” Ram­du­lar said.

Ram­du­lar did not re­veal the pos­si­ble charges the of­fi­cer is fac­ing but Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands that it is like­ly to be re­lat­ed to mis­be­hav­iour in pub­lic of­fice.

In the ear­li­er cor­re­spon­dence sent to act­ing Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Mc­Don­ald Ja­cob and At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Regi­nald Ar­mour, SC, Bal­li­ram claimed that his client should be re­leased as in­ves­ti­ga­tors had am­ple time to com­plete their probe.

Bal­li­ram claimed that his client was ar­rest­ed at his home by of­fi­cers of the Pro­fes­sion­al Stan­dards Bu­reau (PSB) around 8.30 pm on Tues­day.

The of­fi­cer’s home was searched and his ser­vice pis­tol and $25,000 in cash were seized.

He was tak­en to the St Joseph Po­lice Sta­tion where he was in­ter­ro­gat­ed by in­ves­ti­ga­tors from the PSB and the Fi­nan­cial In­ves­ti­ga­tions Branch (FIB)

“Notwith­stand­ing the com­ple­tion of the in­ter­view, my client re­mains de­tained and un­der ar­rest at the St Joseph Po­lice Sta­tion with­out any in­di­ca­tion of whether he would be charged with an of­fence or re­leased,” Bal­li­ram said.

He not­ed that in­ves­ti­ga­tors are aware that he re­cent­ly un­der­went prostate can­cer surgery and is still re­cov­er­ing from the pro­ce­dure.

“My client, a serv­ing mem­ber of the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS), is now lan­guish­ing in a po­lice cell while his med­ical con­di­tion con­tin­ues to de­te­ri­o­rate,” Bal­li­ram said.

Late last year, it was re­vealed that a full and com­pre­hen­sive au­dit would be done in­to the process used by the Po­lice Ser­vice to is­sue firearms.

Since it com­menced, the Firearms Reg­istry has re­mained closed. How­ev­er, the hold­ers of gun li­cens­es have been placed on no­tice that they can be re­scind­ed if any wrong­do­ing is un­earthed.

In a Guardian Me­dia ar­ti­cle on No­vem­ber 30, 2021, it was re­port­ed that a six-mem­ber team, which com­prised three re­tired po­lice of­fi­cers and three serv­ing of­fi­cers, was giv­en three months to com­plete the au­dit and present their find­ings to the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil, which is chaired by Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley.

At a me­dia brief­ing at the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty in Port-of-Spain on No­vem­ber 29, 2021, Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Fitzger­ald Hinds out­lined the back­ground against which this de­ci­sion was tak­en, as he not­ed there was “pub­lic dis­qui­et about the is­sues of li­cens­ing of firearms.”

Ja­cob al­so con­firmed that the TTPS was con­duct­ing a crim­i­nal in­ves­ti­ga­tion in re­la­tion to firearms with­in the coun­try. Ja­cob said it was de­cid­ed that a thor­ough au­dit be done in­to the Firearms Sec­tion so they would know what ex­act­ly has been go­ing on in that di­vi­sion.

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