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DPP received fisherman beating death file two weeks ago
Asif Rahim Khartoon
The mystery surrounding the whereabouts of the file on the alleged beating death of fisherman Asif Rahim Khartoon has finally been solved.
An official from the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) yesterday acknowledged that the DPP is in possession of the controversial report. Kaieteur News was told that the document was sent to the Kingston office on January 7. However, this newspaper was unable to ascertain whether the DPP’s examination of the document is near completion.
The Office for Professional Responsibility (OPR) had reportedly handed the file to Chairman of the Police Complaints Authority Justice Cecil Kennard on Tuesday, December 2. Mr. Kennard had told Kaieteur News that he handed over the Asif Khartoon report to Crime Chief Leslie James on December 23, and the Crime Chief also confirmed yesterday that the file is with the DPP.
Kartoon’s relatives have mounted numerous protests in their quest for justice, while also expressing concern at the length of time that it was taking for the investigation to be completed.
Two police ranks were initially placed under close arrest.
There was further controversy after an official from the OPR claimed that Khartoon’s wife, Soorsattie Chandrapaul, was refusing to attend an identification parade to pick out the police rank who she claimed beat her husband while he was being taken into custody. However, the widow had explained that the arrest occurred at nightfall, and this prevented her from clearly seeing the policeman who struck her husband while he was in a vehicle.
Khartoon, 38, of Meten-Meer-Zorg, West Coast Demerara, died on November 27, 2014, from injuries he sustained while in custody at the Leonora Police Station. A post mortem examination revealed that he died from multiple injuries to his head, face, chest and other parts of the body. While police suggested that the prisoner sustained his injuries at the hand of a fellow inmate, the dead man’s relatives claimed that police ranks inflicted the injuries.
Police had stated that Khartoon was arrested shortly after midnight November 22, 2014, following investigations into a report that he had assaulted his reputed wife, Sursattie Chandrapaul.
“During efforts to arrest him, Asif Rahim Khartoon resisted, but was eventually subdued and taken to the Leonora Police Station.”
“At the station he made no complaints against the arresting ranks. At the Leonora Station, Asif was kept on the bench handcuffed to another man in custody whom he later reported had allegedly assaulted him,” the release stated.
“Asif was subsequently taken to the Parika Police Station that Saturday where he was kept in the lockups. He was charged with assault and brought to the Leonora Police Station on Monday November 24, 2014, to attend the Magistrate’s Court.”
Police stated that while at Leonora, the prisoner’s reputed wife reported that he was beaten by the police and as a consequence, he was taken to the Leonora Cottage Hospital which then referred him to the West Demerara Hospital. He was later released and was scheduled to appear in Court on November 26, 2014.”
Khartoon’s wife alleged that on the day of his arrest, five “black clothes” ranks had handcuffed her husband and placed him to lie in the back of the police van.
The woman claimed when her husband attempted to sit, one of the ranks “tek one of the long gun and stomp he on he back”. She denied that her husband had resisted arrest.
Chandrapaul said that when she visited her husband at the station the following day, she found him in a battered state, with his face badly swollen.
After inquiring from the police about her husband’s condition, they told her that he had been beaten by other prisoners.
However, Chandrapaul said her husband insisted that police ranks had inflicted the injuries. After being admitted to two West Coast Demerara hospitals and the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation, Khartoon took his own discharge, then succumbed.
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