Hypolite lying to save his own skin

DHANRAJ Singh denied yesterday that he had hired Elliot Hypolite or anyone to kill Hansraj Sumairsingh, chairman of the Mayaro/Rio Claro Regional Corporation. He said Hypolite was lying on him to save his own skin.

He also claimed the police attempted to induce him to supply them with information about corruption and voter padding in the UNC Government of which he was a minister. He was promised that if he did so, they would drop the murder charge against him. As the former Government minister took the witness stand yesterday, he said that former head of the Homicide Bureau James Philbert, who is now an Assistant Commissioner, and a  PC Hernandez, told him that he should not go down alone. He said they told him the UNC had abandoned him but people out there were still with him, and that he should speak out about corruption and voter padding. When asked by lead State prosecutor, Sir Timothy Cassel QC, whether he was suggesting the police wanted to overthrow the Government of the day, Dhanraj’s reply was: “I don’t know what they were going to do.” He also suggested the Jamaat Al Muslimeen could have been behind the murder of Sumairsingh in order to get him in trouble because he was cracking down on their corrupt practices in Government’s Unemployment Relief Programme (URP).

The defence closed its case yesterday after calling a surprise witness, former Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Trade, Sieunarine Jokhoo. When hearing resumes today, lead defence attorney Karl Hudson-Phillips QC will start his address to the jury, after which Cassel will follow. Justice Paula Mae Weekes is expected to make her summation of the case to the jury on Thursday. Assisting Cassel are Assistant DPP Devan Rampersad and prosecutor Cheron Raphael and Angelica Teeluchsingh, while assisting Hudson-Phillips are Ravi Rajcoomar, Prakash Ramadhar and Jennifer Hudson-Phillips. Dhanraj denied knowing Elliot Hypolite, a Muslimeen member, who testified that he met Dhanraj while doing burglar proofing work at Dhanraj’s  URP Tunapuna office in September 1999. Hypolite alleged that it was there and then that Dhanraj broached the subject that he wanted Hypolite to kill Sumairsingh. However, Jokhoo testified that after retiring, he held a number of jobs including manager of the URP Training Programme in Tunapuna where Hypolite claimed he first met Dhanraj. The Court heard from Jokhoo that the Tunapuna office was his and not Dhanraj’s. Further, between July and December 1999, there was no need for burglar proofing work or any kind of work to be done to the floor that housed his office, because it was already burglar proofed by the owner.

Dhanraj Singh, a father of three, is before Justice Paula Mae Weekes in the Port-of-Spain Second Criminal Court, charged with the murder of Hansraj Sumairsingh. He is alleged to have hired two hitmen: Hypolite, also called Abdullah, and Steven Cummings, also called Chen, to do the job. Sumairsingh was shot twice at his Eccles Road, Mayaro, beach house on December 30, 1999. Dhanraj told the 12-member jury that when he was taken into police custody, Hernandez also advised him that  if he wanted to speak out he should not tell his lawyers because they were UNC lawyers and would not let him do so. But Cassel suggested to Dhanraj that he was the one who wanted to make a deal with the police. Dhanraj related how Hernandez was being nice to him and even massaged him on two occasions. Hernandez, he said, further suggested that he (Dhanraj) “should not go down alone and that he should speak to the press.” Under further cross-examination by Cassel, Dhanraj said he did not know of any corruption in the UNC. He suggested that Hypolite could have known the layout of his house from either the police, who had searched his house, the leader of the Muslimeen, Yasin Abu Bakr, who had visisted him at his Williamsville home seeking help to build a school, or scores of other persons who had visited his home. He accepted that Bakr was talking favourably about him on political platforms, but suggested that the Muslimeen leader was only pretending to support him. Responding to another of  Cassel’s questions, he said that politicians do pretend and Bakr was dabbling in politics. Bakr, he said, had no reason to speak on his behalf. He said he had no disagreement with Sumairsingh and that their relationship was that of minister and chairman, the same relationship he shared with other chairmen.