CHAIRMAN of the Police Service Commission (PSC) Justice Omesh Satyanand on Friday defended the decision of the Commission to promote police officer, Narine Lall from the rank of sergeant to inspector. 

Narine Lall was the rank who was fingered back in 2009 for the torture of a teenager who was being questioned by the police in a murder case.
Lall, who was a sergeant at the time along with Mohanram Dolai, a constable at the time, were stationed at the Leonora Police Station when they were accused of pouring methylated spirits on the teenager’s private part and setting it alight.
Lall was promoted by the PSC, while Dolai was promoted by the Commissioner of Police (ag) Seelall Persaud.
Speaking with this newspaper at the Commission’s office, the chairman in the presence of the Commission’s Secretary, Jaigobin Jaisingh and member Carvil Duncan, explained that the police rank who was promoted by the Commission had served the force with distinction prior to his involvement in the torture incident in 2009. He added that Lall had paid the penalty for his actions, he was reinstated by Force administration and he has never had another issue against him since his reinstatement. Further, Satyanand said Lall had been denied his promotion for the past two years in keeping with the act and the mere decision of the police force to reinstate him showed that the organisation has confidence in him.
According to the chairman, the law is clear: if a member of the Force commits an offence that makes him or her subject to disciplinary action, that rank will go through a process be it by a tribunal or the courts. However, when the rank or officer would have served his or her period of interdiction on half of a month’s salary on whatever charges, after a period of two years the rank would be eligible for promotion.
In the case of Inspector Lall, he was interdicted and was receiving half of a month’s salary; that was seen as his punishment and the time for the end of that punishment was in 2011.
The commission members explained that since the reinstatement of Lall, his records show that he has been performing diligently and nothing else has been written on his file since that matter to preclude him from any promotion. Additionally, his only blunder was the act of torture in 2009 and there had been not another prior or previous to that.
This newspaper was told that the Commission receives recommendations from the Guyana Police Force only and would never make recommendations to the Force, since that would amount to interfering in the operations and administration of the organisation. With that said, the chairman said that they could not and would not question the decision of the force administration to reinstate the police rank, nor would they deny him further promotion based on something for which he has already paid the consequences.
“From our records, he has been an outstanding policeman for over two decades and the commission took that into consideration and the police administration reinstated him. Since that last incident, we have not heard of him committing any other offence contrary to the Laws of Guyana and that is what I would want the public to know,” the Chairman added.
Meanwhile, commission member, Carvil Duncan who is also the chairman of the Public Service Commission explained: “It is an acceptable principle that once you have committed an offence and you have served the penalty for that offence, then you are deemed to [be] returning to society without blemish; even the judiciary accepts that, so one has to be very careful and you cannot stain a man’s character indefinitely and anyone that commits an offence and they pay the penalty for that would have already repaid society for that and therefore they ought not to be stigmatised.”
On the contention that there was no trial for the embattled police rank, Duncan explained that there was a hearing and witnesses failed to show up. He was however quick to point out that the court has its way of doing business.
“Even in common law, [if] you were accused and there was no defence, then you cannot draw the conclusion that there was not a trial; you attended a trial [and] for want of prosecution, the matter was dismissed,” Duncan added.
The Police Service Commission comprises five members who were sworn in by President Donald Ramotar in September, 2014. The police promotions of 2014 were the first in three years.

(By Leroy Smith)