A high-pro­file case in­volv­ing sev­en po­lice of­fi­cers ac­cused of ex­tort­ing busi­ness­men in San­gre Grande col­lapsed in the Port-of-Spain North A Court, with all charges against them dis­missed yes­ter­day. 

The de­ci­sion came af­ter the pros­e­cu­tion failed to meet court or­ders, present cru­cial ev­i­dence, and en­sure the at­ten­dance of key wit­ness­es.

The of­fi­cers—In­spec­tor Deyal Ram­lakhan, act­ing Cor­po­ral Sa­heed Khan, Con­sta­bles Cleon Smith, Da­vanan Rag­bir, Macai Joseph, Ja­son O’Souna, and Spe­cial Re­serve Po­lice Ray­on Charles—were charged in April 2023 with mis­be­hav­iour in pub­lic of­fice and per­vert­ing the course of jus­tice. The charges came af­ter a vi­ral video sur­faced show­ing po­lice of­fi­cers al­leged­ly seiz­ing cash at a busi­ness in San­gre Grande in March 2023. The record­ing ig­nit­ed wide­spread claims of po­lice cor­rup­tion tar­get­ing busi­ness­men in the area.

Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Suzette Mar­tin and the Pro­fes­sion­al Stan­dards Bu­reau (PSB), which she led at the time, ar­rest­ed the of­fi­cers on April 24 af­ter con­sult­ing with the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions (DPP).

A TTPS me­dia re­lease at the time de­tailed the charges:

In­spec­tor Ram­lakhan, Cor­po­ral Khan, and Con­sta­ble Rag­bir were ac­cused of mis­ap­pro­pri­at­ing $27,693 from a busi­ness;

In­spec­tor Ram­lakhan, Con­sta­ble Joseph, and SRP Smith were im­pli­cat­ed in the mis­ap­pro­pri­a­tion of $12,297; Con­sta­bles Smith and Rag­bir were charged with con­spir­ing to make false state­ments to im­pli­cate vic­tims in an il­le­gal gam­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tion;

In­spec­tor Ram­lakhan, PC Rag­bir, SRP Smith, and SRP Charles were charged with mis­ap­pro­pri­at­ing $38,500.

But yes­ter­day, Mas­ter Sarah De Sil­va dis­charged the of­fi­cers af­ter the pros­e­cu­tion failed to meet cru­cial dis­clo­sure dead­lines on two sep­a­rate oc­ca­sions. When the case was ini­tial­ly called, there was nei­ther a com­plainant nor a pros­e­cu­tor present. The stand-in pros­e­cu­tor, Po­lice Cor­po­ral Bayne, ad­mit­ted to hav­ing no case file or up­dates. This led to the Mas­ter dis­miss­ing the case en­tire­ly.

The ac­cused of­fi­cers, who were part of a spe­cial unit in the East­ern Di­vi­sion, main­tained their in­no­cence through­out the pro­ceed­ings.

Two fe­male of­fi­cers ini­tial­ly im­pli­cat­ed in the in­ves­ti­ga­tion were lat­er re­leased with­out charges.

Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Kei­th Scot­land com­ment­ed on the mat­ter, say­ing, “I am not ap­prised of all the pri­ma­ry facts sur­round­ing this mat­ter. On­ly af­ter I have gath­ered all rel­e­vant facts would I be able to make a mean­ing­ful com­ment.

“What I will say is that any col­lapse of a case with­out hear­ing the ev­i­dence is a mat­ter of con­cern.”