VIDEO footage from Monday’s ruckus in the Parliament chambers has revealed no physical assault on PPP’s frontbencher Priya Manickchand, although the MP was seen screaming and crying in front of the television cameras.
Manickchand broke down in tears and accused the police of physically assaulting her. As she cried, Manickchand, a former Minister of Education under the PPP said, “The police is supposed to protect us and if the police is making an arrest or is attempting to make an arrest of someone who is not threatening any harm, that should not include punching me in my chest and my belly.”

“It should not include pushing us into chairs and tables…the same police who was unable to determine who Santa was along the long meters of this corridors…the police have been protecting and serving us, and we are proud of them, but you had your cameras on and you saw the ones that pushed our faces into the table…he punched me…this is male police sent in here to deal with us,” she continued as she asked why government is afraid to answer questions on its own budget. The video recording seen by the Guyana Chronicle does not show Manickchand being punched by police officers. Instead, there is video evidence of several PPP MPs attacking a policeman and even ripping his shirt.

The Department of Public Information, in a facebook account of the fracas, said at the time when the police attempted to remove PPP MP, Juan Edghill, from the chambers there were no less than 15 video cameras rolling and stationed at all angles of what turned out to be a melee. Many of these cameras, the DPI said, belong to the opposition aligned media. In addition, there were more than half a dozen photographers furiously snapping away. “I patiently await the video footage/evidence to surface of the female PPP MP who claims to have been punched by a policeman in the stomach. Surely, it must have been caught on camera. It would be impossible not to have been caught by at least one of the 15 or so cameras which were there,” the DPI added.