Senior cop granted $80,000 bail

A 49-year-old police inspector attached to the Special Anti-Crime Unit of Trinidad and Tobago was before the court yesterday charged with attempting to pervert the course of public justice. Insp Hosein Ali of Tabaquite arrived at the Port-of-Spain Magistrates’ Court shortly after 1 pm, in a heavily tinted Land Rover vehicle. Ali, who has 31 years’ service, appeared unfazed as he was escorted to the holding bay of the court by a member of the Firearm Interdiction Unit. In the courtroom, Ali was kept away from full view of persons seated in the public gallery, as he was made to sit, not among other arrested persons, but in a small room just behind the courtroom. When the matter was called by Magistrate Avason Quinlan, Ali stood motionless as the indictable charge was read.

The charge, which was laid by ASP Chandraban Maharaj, stated that on January 5, 2005, at Dow Village Rousillac, Ali did an act intending to pervert the course of public justice, namely, by placing false evidence, namely 40 rounds of ammunition in a room occupied by William Bill Crato, intending that the public course of justice thereby be perverted contrary to common law. After the reading of the charge, attorney Rangie Dolsingh SC, who appeared on behalf of the accused, highlighted flaws in the procedure which led his client to be charged. Dolsingh pointed out to Quinlan that the charge document pertaining to his client, did not state anywhere that permission was granted by the Director of Public Prosecutions to lay a charge against his client.

“When a charge of this nature is preferred against anyone there should be consent from the DPP. It is nowhere here in the document. I ask that the charge against my client be discharged,” Dolsingh told the magistrate. Quinlan, who acknowledged the absence of the written and signed permission by the DPP, told Dolsingh that it was out of her jurisdiction to undertake such a decision. She then set bail in the sum of $80,000, to be approved by a Clerk of the Peace. The matter was then transferred to the Siparia Court for April 19. On Wednesday, school teacher Christime Vashti Jokhan, 49, was also placed on $80,000 bail when she appeared before a Port-of-Spain Magistrate, charged with the same offence. The school teacher, who has 29 years’ service, appeared yesterday before a Siparia magistrate.