A 28-YEAR-OLD ex-police officer was on Tuesday charged with perjury in relation to a drug trafficking case where he had allegedly lied under oath and deliberately gave contradictory evidence in court, thereby facilitating the dismissal of charges.

Ex-Police Constable 2309, Marlon Bharat Chatterpaul, of #67 Village, Corentyne, Berbice appeared before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan and denied the charge.

It is alleged that Chatterpaul on July 28, 2016 at Weldaad Magistrates’ Court, Berbice, while being a witness in the matter of Police vs. Victor Edwards and Kenson Charles, he falsely swore to evidence in-chief of the said matter.

Police Prosecutor Arwin Moore opposed the ex-cop being released on bail since the accused is being investigated in similar matters and he might want to flee the jurisdiction.

However the Chief Magistrate overruled the prosecutor’s objection and released Chatterpaul on $25,000 bail. The matter is transferred to the Weldaad Magistrates’ Court for July 22.

According to reports Constable Chatterpaul was the main witness in a drug trafficking case when he allegedly lied under oath and deliberately gave contradictory evidence during trial which led to the dismissal of charges against two men implicated in the trafficking of over seven kilograms of cannabis sativa.

The matter was however later dismissed against Victor Edwards, 20, of Canefield, Canje and Kenson Charles, 24, of Lot 7677 Sheet Anchor Village by Magistrate Rhondell Weever at the Weldaad Magistrates’ Court in September 2016.

Magistrate Weever laid the blame for her release of them directly on “the deliberate and blatant lies and inconsistent evidence” given by Police Constable Chatterpaul.

The magistrate had said: “The prosecution failed miserably in establishing its case all because Constable Chatterpaul deliberately and blatantly gave false evidence under oath.” Chatterpaul, she said, had even admitted under cross-examination that he had been guided by one Corporal Foo to write his statement in such a way as to frame or entrap the two defendants for trafficking in narcotics.

Edwards and Charles had been accused of committing the offence at Washington Public Road on May 31, 2016. Kenson Charles was the owner of the motor car in which the narcotics had allegedly been found.

In initial evidence, the magistrate heard that the main witness, Constable Chatterpaul, was en route to New Amsterdam when he saw a white motor car parked on the Washington Public Road a few hundred yards east of the Weldaad Police Station with a man whom he later identified as Victor Edwards standing three feet away from the vehicle.

Chatterpaul said in his evidence-in-chief that he had seen a road block in progress at the Weldaad Police Station and suspected that the occupants of the car were seeking to avoid driving up to it.
He said he became suspicious and approached Edwards, searched him but found nothing. He then searched the vehicle where he found the seven kilograms and 225 grammes of cannabis sativa hidden in plastic bags behind the driver’s seat.

In freeing the men, Magistrate Weever noted that under cross-examination, Chatterpaul gave a completely different story.

Then he had stated that it was not true that Edwards was standing three feet away from the car; It was put to him that Edwards was not standing but walking and he answered yes, an answer inconsistent with the evidence he gave when he said that he had seen the defendant standing alongside the motor car.

When asked whether Edwards told him that he was in a car that broke down at Seafield Village farther east, he said yes. When asked why he had not divulged that information to the court, his answer was that he had been guided to write the statement by one Corporal Foo and had been told to leave that information out.