Resh­ma Ra­goonath

Sev­en al­leged gang mem­bers have ap­peared be­fore the courts in South Trinidad charged with of­fences un­der the An­ti-Gang Leg­is­la­tion. Yes­ter­day, Shawn Rat­tan, Stephen Lor­rie, At­i­ba Ja­cob, Ian Dover, Ken Gre­sham, Ker­wyn Rocke all of Mara­bel­la ap­peared in the San Fer­nan­do Mag­is­trates' Court charged with be­ing gang mem­bers. Rat­tan, Lor­rie, Ja­cob, Dover, Gre­sham and Rocke, ap­peared in the First Court be­fore Se­nior Mag­is­trate Ra­jen­dra Ram­bachan. They were charged by Cpl Dale Ram­roop, PC Nar­ine Bis­nath, WPC Gib­son and PC Gor­don. Ja­son Sim­mons, of Mon­key Town, ap­peared be­fore Princes Town Se­nior Mag­is­trate In­drani Ce­de­no. He was charged by Sgt Don Ga­jad­har.

Ram­bachan, pre­sid­ing over an af­ter­noon sit­ting, read the charges to each of the six men held at var­i­ous lo­ca­tions, in­clud­ing Bayshore West, Union Park East, Mara­bel­la and Hu­bert Rance Street and Lam­bie Street, Vista­bel­la on Au­gust 24, that they are gang mem­bers con­trary to Sec­tion 5:1 A of Act 10 of 2011, the An­ti-Gang law. Ram­bachan, who stressed that he was read­ing the charges as laid, told po­lice pros­e­cu­tor Sgt Gor­don Ma­haraj to look at the word­ing of the charges laid. He raised a con­cern over the charges since he said they were laid as a com­plaint as op­posed to 'on in­for­ma­tion'. Ram­bachan ad­journed all mat­ters to Au­gust 30 "for the State to de­cide whether it wish­es to lay an 'on in­for­ma­tion' rather than a com­plaint." He told the men they are not en­ti­tled to bail since they are charged with a non-bail­able of­fence un­der Sec­tion 5 sub­sec­tion 6 of the Bail Act as amend­ed by Act 11 of 2011.

"In 120 days af­ter the read­ing of this charge, if the mat­ter has not start­ed with ev­i­dence be­ing tak­en, you are en­ti­tled to go to a judge in cham­bers. No judge or mag­is­trate can grant you bail," he ex­plained. At­tor­ney Shaun Tikas­ingh, to­geth­er with at­tor­ney Sub­has Pan­day, ap­peared for Rat­tan and Lor­rie. Dover and Rocke were sep­a­rate­ly charged in­dictably with pos­ses­sion of mar­i­jua­na. Ma­haraj said they will pro­ceed with the charges as laid and Ram­bachan ex­plained to the men that be­cause the nar­cotics of­fence is "linked" to the gang of­fence the charges will pro­ceed in­dictably. Sim­mons, a labour­er of Cacique Street, Princes Town, ap­peared be­fore Princes Town First Court Mag­is­trate In­drani Ce­de­no, charged with be­ing a gang mem­ber.