PC DARRYL SAMNARINESINGH

Police Constable Darryl Samnarinesingh, who was sentenced to 17 years in prison for kidnapping a judge’s nephew, has lost his appeal before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London. Three Law Lords dismissed Samnarinesingh’s petition in which he was seeking leave to appeal against conviction and sentence. The Lords ruled that, “permission was refused because the application did not raise an arguable point of law of general public importance which ought to be considered by the Privy Council, bearing in mind the case already has been the subject of a judicial decision and reviewed on appeal.” The committee comprised Lords Rodger, Neuberger and Kerr. English Queen’s Counsel Edward Fitzgerald appeared for Samnarinesingh, while Aidan Casey, instructed by John Almeida, represented the State.

The dismissal of the petition means Samnarinesingh will serve his 17 years behind bars and he would be dismissed from the T&T Police Service. He was the only one, of the five convicted, to have appealed to the Judicial Committee. Samnarinesingh and four others were found guilty before Justice Herbert Volney in the Port-of-Spain High Court of kidnapping Rishi Permanand on December 17, 2002. They were found guilty on December 2, 2006 and sentenced three days later. Another policeman, PC Anand Ramcharan, absconded before the verdict, but was sentenced to 15 years in prison. He has not yet been caught, although a warrant was issued for his arrest. He has been thrown out of the Police Service.

Permanand, the son of the former magistrate Owad Permanand, and nephew of former Appeal Court judge, Jean Permanand, was held in a shack in San Rafael by his abductors who threatened to put a bullet through his head if his family did not pay the $850,000 ransom demanded. He was released on December 19, 2002, after he said he bargained with two of his captors. At the trial, he denied claims by the defence that he was part of a bogus kidnapping to extort money from his family. The others convicted and jailed were Mitchum Maraj, 26, Pooran Saran, 51, and William Mahase, 33. On February 28, 2008, the Court of Appeal, comprising Justices Roger Hamel-Smith, Stanley John and Paula Mae Weekes, dismissed the appeal and affirmed the conviction and sentence passed on Samnarinesingh.