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DPP charges man a second time for same matter

Jan 22, 2009 News

PI was finished and accused committed ….

 

Attorney-at-Law Vic Puran is peeved at the Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions after the DPP reinstituted charges against his client, Kish Balkaram.

According to the lawyer, his client Kish Balkaram was charged some three and a half years ago for attempting to commit murder and felonious wounding, and was tried and committed to stand trial in the High Court for the matters.

Yesterday, at the Georgetown Magistrates Courts, before acting Chief Magistrate Melissa Robertson, as the charge was being read to the defendant, attorney Vic Puran objected to the charge being read for the second time.

The lawyer contended that his client cannot be tried for a second time after his case was already thrown over to the High Court.

The lawyer contended in open court that this is “gross incompetence” by the DPP Chambers. He explained that the defendant cannot be “tried for the same crime” twice.

Puran said that although the Director of Public Prosecutions “has the right to institute new charges on the defendant, they cannot make a mistake then seek to retry someone for the same crime.”

He said that the prosecution had made an error from the inception when they decided to try both matters at one preliminary hearing.

He said that after the prosecution realised that they had erred, they immediately sought to have the matter retried.

He further told the court that the court must concern itself with whether its time is been spent doing “lawful” things, and not things that would in turn waste both the defendant’s and the court’s time.

Puran posited that both his client’s time and money are going to waste if the state persists with the case.

He said that the DPP is abusing its process, and added that the prosecution is obligated to conduct itself in a competent manner.

He relentlessly reiterated the fact “that the prosecution cannot perform incompetently then seek to remedy its defects by repeating the proceedings”.

However, according to police prosecutor Denise Griffith, the accused was wanted in connection with another murder. She therefore asked that the file be sent back to the DPP for further advice.

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