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DPP says Sharma wants passport to travel to Canada
The request by the legal team for embattled television station owner CN Sharma to have copies of his passport has nothing to do with boosting Sharma’s defense but about him wanting to travel to Canada, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Shalimar Ali-Hack charged yesterday.
Chandra Narine Sharma
Sharma has been charged with carnal knowledge of a 13-year-old girl and was released on $2 million bail.
He was also charged with obstruction of justice in the same case and was released on $100, 000 bail.
Sharma’s legal team has filed a motion to have certified copies of his passport admitted as evidence, claiming that this is integral to the defence of their client.
In a letter to the press, the DPP said Sharma’s lead defence, Nigel Hughes, applied to the Magistrate for the return to Mr. Sharma of his passport which was ordered by the Court to be lodged as one of the conditions of his bail.
According to the DPP, Mr. Hughes is contending that this passport is required for the defence to prepare their defence to show that Mr. Sharma was out of Guyana at the time of the commission of the offence.
The date of the charge is between July 23, 2003 and July 22, 2004.
The Magistrate ordered that copies of all pages of the passport be returned.
According to the DPP, the copies of all 32 pages of the passport reveal that it is a new machine readable passport which was issued to Mr. Sharma on August 21, 2009.
She claims there are no entry or exit stamps on any of these 32 pages. The only thing on any of the pages is a Canadian Visa on page four with date of issue being March 10, 2010.
“It is clear that since this passport has no entry or exit stamps it cannot be intended to be used to prepare any defence but can only be used to travel to Canada.
Given these facts, this passport therefore cannot be integral to the defence of Mr Sharma but rather integral to the travel of Mr. Sharma to Canada,” the DPP declared.
She said that the motion in the High Court is not merely for the return of the passport to prepare their defence but because they are alleging that they are not prepared and need time to prepare their defence.
“Ironically, we are always hearing complaints about the length of time matters take to be heard and when the court is making an effort to expedite the hearing the jurisdiction of the High Court is being invoked to delay the hearing of the Preliminary Inquiry.”
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