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Leonora ‘torture cop’ kicked out of Force
– Ramjattan also pushing for dismissal of colleague
“We are remedying a situation that had gone horrendously bad…We are going to cleanse the Guyana Police Force of those bad cops…”
Corporal Mohanram Dolai, who was found criminally liable for burning a teenage boy’s privates in the Leonora Station lockups six years ago has been kicked out of the Guyana Police Force.
Khemraj Ramjattan, Minister of Public Security
Dolai was given his marching orders last week by Police Commissioner Seelall Persaud, following instructions from newly-appointed Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan.
Ramjattan confirmed last night that Dolai was fired on his instructions, and indicated that he will be seeking to have Dolai’s colleague, Inspector Narine Lall, given similar marching orders, as he signaled that there will be zero tolerance for rogue cops, under the new dispensation.
“Last week I instructed the Commissioner of Police that in the public interest, both ranks who tortured at Leonora, for which they were found criminally liable, be fired. I understand that the rank (Dolai) that the Police Commissioner could fire, was fired.”
However, Ramjattan explained that Inspector Narine Lall, who was also found liable for the torture of 15-year-old Twyon Thomas, could only be dismissed by the Police Service Commission (PSC).
“I intend to write to the PSC, which is the authority (to rule on dismissal)… I would be doing that tomorrow (today). I will be making the request that in the public interest that the Inspector (Lall) also be fired. You cannot have done this major misconduct and still be retained in the Guyana Police Force, and then be promoted.”
Ramjattan, who was Thomas’ attorney, said that the argument that Lall was not criminally convicted is misconstrued, since Justice Roxanne George had found Lall and Dolai liable for being responsible for
Corporal Mohanram Dolai
burning Thomas’s genitals while he was in custody at Leonora.
“We are remedying a situation that had gone horrendously bad, and I, as Minister of Public Security would not tolerate that kind of development in the Guyana Police Force,” Ramjattan said.
“I will be looking at other (serious) cases in which there was criminal and civil liability, depending on their gravity. We are going to cleanse the Force of those bad cops.”
The torture of 15-year-old Twyon Thomas in October, 2009 made international headlines when a photograph of the lad’s badly burned privates appeared on the front page of the Kaieteur News. At the time, Thomas was being questioned at the Leonora Police Station in connection with the October 26, 2009 murder of Ramenauth Bisram at his home in Canal No 2 Polder on the West Bank Demerara. Bisram was the PPP/C’s former Vice-Chairman of the Essequibo Islands-West Demerara Region.
It was alleged that while he was in custody, Dolai, then a constable, and Lall, who was a sergeant, doused the lad’s genital area with methylated spirits and set him alight.
The two ranks appeared in court on November 2009, charged with burning the genitals of a 15-year-old boy with intent to maim, disfigure, disable or cause him grievous bodily harm. They were also charged with unlawfully and maliciously wounding Nouravie Wilfred.
The criminal case against them was subsequently dismissed in the Magistrate’s Court after the boy
Inspector Narine Lall
and other witnesses failed to turn up.
But in June 2011, Justice Roxanne George awarded $6.5M in damages to Twyon Thomas. The Attorney General was also ordered to pay $100,000 in costs, while Sergeant Narine Lall and Constable Mohanram Dulai, the two policemen accused of torturing Thomas, were ordered to pay $75,000 each in costs.
The Judge also criticized the actions of Dr. Mahendra Chand, the police doctor who had examined the injured teen while he was in custody at the Leonora Police Station, as lacking “sensitivity and professionalism.”
But the case shot back into the limelight this year when the Guyana Police Force published an order in January 2, 2015, that Sergeant Narine Lall was promoted to the rank of Inspector, and Dolai to the rank of Corporal.
Defending this decision, Police Commissioner Seelall Persaud said that Lall and Dolai were not found guilty during a criminal trial because their accuser, Twyon Thomas, did not turn up in court to testify.
“We have a policy on disciplining of ranks. Ranks who have been charged and go before the court, if they are convicted, they are dismissed. If they are exonerated, then they become a member of the force,” the Commissioner said.
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