Deyalsingh robbery suspect released from custody
Senior Reporter
jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt
A day after attorneys for one of two men held in connection to the robbery of Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh threatened to sue Police Commissioner Erla Harewood-Christopher, the man has been released from custody.
Adita Ramdular, a legal officer attached to the Police Service Legal Unit, sent an email to defence attorney Aaron Lewis of Fortis Chambers yesterday informing him that instructions had been given to release the suspect. Lewis had given the police until 6 pm yesterday to release his client or be served legal action.
In the email sent out at 6.06 pm, Ramdular said, “I am instructed that your client is going to be released. Please be guided accordingly.”
Lewis wrote to the police on Saturday asking for an update on his client who had been in custody since Wednesday.
He said his client was questioned by three police officers about a vehicle supposedly used as the getaway vehicle in the robbery. After answering four questions, the officers left and returned the day after.
“On the 18th day of September 2024, four police officers visited our client’s home at 10 pm. He was told to wear a jersey and change his pants because they were taking him to the police station. He was informed that he was arrested in connection with the offence of robbery, which occurred on the 17th day of September 2024” Lewis wrote.
Ramdular asked Lewis not to file the habeas corpus. A habeas corpus application, once filed, forces the police to either release a suspect or charge them with an offence.
Deyalsingh, 66, was sitting outside Nyabinghi Bar at the corner of Abercromby and King Streets, St Joseph, at 4.55 pm last Tuesday when two men walked up to him. One of them placed a gun to his head and demanded that he hand over a gold bera.
A day after the bera was stolen, DCP Suzette Martin warned the culprits, “We’re coming for you.”
Hours later two men were held in connection with the robbery.
Police said officers from the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) went to St Paul Street a day after the robbery and saw a blue Hyundai Elantra which they believe was used as the getaway vehicle. They intercepted the car and held two male suspects who were later handed over to St Joseph police.
The swift action by police was criticised by opposition MPs who called on the police to exercise the same care for other victims of crime.
Speaking outside Parliament on Friday, Oropouche West MP Davendranath Tancoo said, “There seems to be a special type of response that is given to crimes when it comes to PNM officials and their friends and families. That is unfortunate.”
Pointe-a-Pierre MP David Lee agreed.
“We wonder if the normal citizenry could get that swift action that ministers seem to get,” he said.
In defence, Laventille East/Morvant MP Adrian Leonce said there was no preferential treatment.
“I don’t want to join the bandwagon in terms of saying because it’s the minister or anything. I just feel that being a public person, you have more people saying things. That way information is easier shared. Sometimes something will happen in the constituency and nobody not saying anything but because of who whatever happened to, it is a negative and it is a positive in both ways,” he said.
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