Top Cop raps Magistrate’s ‘pack of jokers’ remark
Commissioner of Police (ag) David Ramnarine has deemed remarks made by Magistrate Rabindranauth Singh as reckless and insulting, and that they should never have been uttered.
The Commissioner was responding to remarks made by the magistrate during a case at the Springlands Magistrate’s Court yesterday, where a third person was charged for the murder of two fishermen in the April 27 piracy attack.
Magistrate Singh said to the police present in the court, "Y'all working like a pack of jokers here.”
In a press statement issued last evening, Ramnarine alleged that the magistrate has an axe to grind with the investigators in the matter, since according to Ramnarine, he was removed from presiding over a very high profile matter in which the said police were investigating.
However, the Commissioner noted that the Guyana Police Force Criminal Investigation Department conducted these investigations with "due diligence required and worked well over and above the normal call of duty, in often times difficult circumstances, finally resulting in the preferment of the charges which received legal advice.”
Additionally, Ramnarine contended that the magistrate made such "unfortunate and reckless utterances intended to malign these hardworking police officers and legal advisers … as a result of his youthfulness (and) inexperience…”
Three men appeared at the Springlands Magistrate’s Court yesterday in relation to the piracy attack.
One of the men, Nakool Manohar also known as “Fyah”, 39, of Lot 1, Number 43 Village, Corentyne, was charged with the murder of Tilaknauth Mohabir, also known as “Kai” or “Kaiman” when he appeared on May 30 at the Springlands Magistrate Court.
While nineteen-year-old Alexander Denheart, who also appeared yesterday, had also been charged with Mohabir's murder, at the Georgetown's Magistrate Court, on June 6.
However, the third man, Premnauth Persaud, 43, also known as "Sinbad," who was recently nabbed in Berbice also appeared to answer to the said charge.
The police yesterday withdrew the charge against Manohar and then filed another murder charge, this time jointly against Manohar and Premnauth. However, this happened only after Magistrate Singh questioned why the men were
being charged separately.
Additionally, as the police continued to insist that Denheart would be charged separately, Magistrate Singh continued to question the reason for such a decision, and it was during that exchange that the magistrate made the remarks.
Magistrate Singh had previously recused himself from hearing a case against five men who are accused of murdering Faiyaz Narinedatt in late 2016.
The magistrate’s recusal came after he was cited by the Judicial Service Commission over allegations publicised in the press that “counsel” had been sending him text messages from the bar table and that he had not been recording the evidence.
However, Justices Jo-Ann Barlow and Sandil Kissson earlier this year threw out an application by the five men accused of murdering the Berbice carpenter to have Magistrate Singh complete the Preliminary Inquiry (PI) into the charge against them.