Two shocking mysteries in the police force

Nov 24, 2016 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

A businessman of La Penitence on June 17, lodged for safe keeping at the Brickdam police station, one .32 Taurus Semi-automatic pistol – number FUH83936, with one magazine and 10 rounds of .32 ammunition and a sidekick holster. The items were entered into the property book with the number PBP, ENT 536.

On July 16, the gentleman went to uplift his stuff. The items could not be found and he was told to return. He has done that several times and the items have been declared missing. The gentleman is asking the press to publicize his plight. He has since contacted very senior officials of the government. An inquiry was ordered. A civilian security official has compiled a report which is now with the Ministry of Public Security

A senior official in the office of the Prime Minister left the country in May this year and lodged at the Brickdam police station his Taurus .32 semi-automatic gun, number FFY49197 with one magazine with eight .32 rounds of ammunition. He returned to Guyana in June, went to uplift his stuff only to be told to return since they cannot be located. He has journeyed to the Brickdam police station ten times since. The items have been declared missing.

The same official has completed a report which is now with the Ministry of Public Security. But this Office of the Prime Minister staff was more fortunate than the La Penitence businessman. The Office of the Prime Minister is looking into his complaint.

How did these guns go missing? Where are they? Could a paper trail determine who had access to the safe where they were stored, meaning how many persons were authorized to go into the safe? Is footage from the surveillance tapes in the station still available? This is the tip of the iceberg. The tip of the iceberg is located at Brickdam. The body of the iceberg, similar to the one that sank the Titanic, is at Eve Leary.

The second mystery relates to a national junior flyweight champion of Guyana, Richard Subratee. On Friday morning, while the weather in Georgetown was in Mediterranean mood, Subratee finished his training session at the gym and was jogging home when a police van picked him up. Subratee said he told the police who he was and that he was flying out to Barbados in days’ time to represent Guyana in a Caribbean competition. He said the police told him there would be no problem if he would just come into the van; it was routine stuff for an identification parade.

Subratee said on the way, the van hauled in ten more youths; all from depressed areas of Georgetown. They told the youths they just needed them to be part of an identification parade and it would just take some minutes. The van turned into Brickdam station. Subratee found himself in a jail cell. Subratee then realized that the police had another parade in mind not the identification one.

As Friday wore on, Subratee’s mother contacted his trainer, Sebert Blake. Blake journeyed to Brickdam, made enquiries and was told Subratee would be out after the parade. The parade never took place. Subratee’s mother contacted the Office of the Prime Minister who put one of its most senior functionaries to talk to Commander Hicken. Hicken told one of the most senior bureaucratic officials in the Office of the Prime Minister that it was a police matter and investigations are ongoing.

Blake sought the help of boxing official Steve Ninvalle. Ninvalle contacted Hicken on Saturday morning. One Friday night, Subratee was moved from Brickdam to the holding cell at Prashad Nagar which was built to hold three persons. There were six others in the cell with Subratee who told me there wasn’t even room to stand up and he didn’t sleep on Friday night.

Subratee was released on Saturday night. From Friday morning to Saturday night when Subratee was released, there was no identification parade. The mystery is why and for what purpose was Subratee picked up?

I interviewed Hicken and Ninvalle for this column. Hicken said that he had no discussion with an official from the Office of the Prime Minister. If the public knows who this official is they may not believe Hicken. Hicken also told me that once Ninvalle contacted him the boxer was released. My investigation does not support Hicken’s timing.

Ninvalle spoke to me at length on the Subratee case but does not want to be quoted except to say one emphatic thing – he is completely finished with politics. Ninvalle was a candidate for the PPP in two successive elections.

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