Ramjattan wants ‘whistling-blowing cop’ claims investigated

…Top Cop denies police numbers found in bandits’ phones

By Leroy Smith

PUBLIC Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan, on Wednesday, said that he expects the Guyana Police Force to launch a thorough investigation into claims that senior operatives of the force have been protecting junior police ranks known to be involved with criminals and that the numbers of some officers had shown up on the callers’ log of one of the recently-killed bandits in Corentyne.

Although he admitted that he was not briefed by the Commissioner of Police, Leslie James, in relation to the matters which have been reported in the press, Ramjattan said that all the claims being made can be “surmounted by good detective work.”

“I have not been briefed by the commissioner of police. and in the security sector in every country, you would have some complicity sometimes with rogue elements in law enforcement and criminals; if that is the case here, I would not be surprised. I would want further investigations to verify its truthfulness and authenticity and of course to get those who may be involved criminally prosecuted. It is illegal,” Ramjattan told the media Wednesday morning.

Commissioner James later told the Guyana Chronicle that the phones were sent to the Criminal Investigation Department to be analysed. He said All of the phones have not been completely analysed but thus far no numbers for policemen have been found in the phones. The matter at hand is the killing of three bandits by the police in an alleged shootout in May in Black Bush Polder. One day after that shooting, the Guyana Chronicle did receive information that the numbers of police detectives were found in the phone of at least one of the bandits.

At a press conference hosted by the Commissioner of Police on June 02, 2019, the issue was raised but James said then that he would be addressing the issue at a subsequent press conference.

While Minister Ramjattan has called for a probe into the claims, the Guyana Chronicle has received confirmed reports that the force has since launched an investigation to determine the identity of the ‘whistle-blower’ so that they ‘can sit and talk’ with that person or persons.

The security minister recalled that in the past, reports against corrupt policemen were investigated and in some cases they were caught and dealt with in accordance with the law and he sees nothing different here if the reports, which are now coming to light, turn out to be factual. He, however, cautioned that there is nothing wrong with the numbers of policemen and other officers being in the mobile phones of criminal elements. He stressed that what is important is for there to be proof of complicity between the criminal elements and the police personnel.

Ramjattan is confident that with proper police work by detectives, the answers can be forthcoming and the matter addressed. “The police force is a microcosm of your community and if in our community you have people who do all kinds of rotten things, then we will have this. I have stated before that men and women are not angels and they are going to get involved when the profit motivates his eye and, generally, this complicity with criminals arises out of a profit motive of making some extra money other than their salaries and greed,” Ramjattan noted.

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