Latest update March 28th, 2024 12:59 AM
Dec 09, 2014 News
The Police Complaints Authority (PCA) is reportedly ‘disturbed’ that Mrs. Sursattie Chandrapaul, whose husband, Asif Rahim Khartoon, died from brutality sustained in Leonora Police Station, is unwilling to attend an identification parade of police officers.
Former Chancellor Kennard, the Director of the PCA, is quoted in the press as saying, “What is disturbing is that the wife has failed to go to the identification parade; she has to identify the men who allegedly beat her husband.”
Asif Rahim Khartoon, a fisherman of West Coast Demerara, was arrested following reports that he had assaulted his wife, Sursattie Chandrapaul.
That she should be reluctant to go to the ID parade is understandable. Apart from the reason she has provided, namely, that it was dark and she didn’t get a good view of the police, she may also suspect she is being drawn into a set-up, the GHRA said.
The allegations by Mrs. Chandrapaul are that when she visited her husband the morning after he had been arrested, he complained to her of having been beaten in Leonora police station during the night. Asif Rahim Khartoon, a fisherman of West Coast Demerara, was arrested following reports that he had assaulted his wife, Sursattie Chandrapaul.
The impression being created is that charges cannot be laid without her cooperation, although the fatal injuries appear to have been inflicted while in Leonora Police station, when she was not present.
The other question to be explained is why the Leonora Police Station itself cannot very quickly determine, as an internal matter, who the members of the patrol were on the night in question and who were on duty at the station.
Another important consideration is that Mrs. Chandrapaul has lost a husband to the violent behaviour of the Guyana Police Force and now she is being asked to put herself and family, possibly in harm’s way, by identifying the perpetrators.
The posture of the PCA suggests little appreciation for its own role as supposedly a public defender against police abuse. Since Mrs. Chandrapaul’s evidence is clearly valuable, what steps has the PCA considered to re-assure her?
Has the PCA, for example, offered to accompany Mrs. Chandrapaul to the ID parade? Has the PCA given any thought to warning all members of the police line-up that any attempt at retaliation against the Chandrapaul family will be dealt with severely?
Moreover, the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) should surely by now be joining up the dots between brutality and location. Leonora Police station is attracting notoriety for incidents of savage brutality.
Little appears to have been learnt from the public outcry and millions of dollars awarded in damages to a 16-year-old boy whose genitals were set ablaze in this station in 2009. More recent cases involved a group of suspects who were cruelly beaten to extract confessions over the death of a businessman. The PCA should be publicly making these connections.
To the extent that the PCA has any public image at all, it is of a remote, quasi-legal, quasi-official adjunct to the Guyana Police Force (GPF). It is difficult to believe that the PCA holds any dread for members of the GPF, which, for effectiveness, is the reputation it must develop. The other side of that coin is that the Agency, to be deemed an independent oversight body, must be perceived by victims as unashamedly supportive.
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
Mar 28, 2024
Minister Ramson challenge athletes to better last year’s performance By Rawle Toney Kaieteur Sports – Guyana’s 23-member contingent for the CARIFTA Games in Grenada is set to depart the...B.V. Police Station Kaieteur News – The Beterverwagting Police Station, East Coast Demerara (ECD) will be reconstructed... more
By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News – In the face of escalating global environmental challenges, water scarcity and... more
Freedom of speech is our core value at Kaieteur News. If the letter/e-mail you sent was not published, and you believe that its contents were not libellous, let us know, please contact us by phone or email.
Feel free to send us your comments and/or criticisms.
Contact: 624-6456; 225-8452; 225-8458; 225-8463; 225-8465; 225-8473 or 225-8491.
Or by Email: [email protected] / [email protected]