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COI into alleged assassination plot… Ramnarine denies usurping powers of Top Cop
Assistant Commissioner of Police, David Ramnarine
Assistant Commissioner of Police, David Ramnarine has denied the suggestion that he usurped the powers of the Commissioner of Police, in order to take over the role and functions of the office of the Top Cop.
Ramnarine was at the responding to questions at the Commission of Inquiry into the alleged plot to kill President David Granger.
The plot had detailed a bounty of $7M for someone to kill President Granger some time in 2015. Andriff Gillard, who filed the report, had claimed that he went to borrow $6M from a businessman, Nizam Khan, said to be gold miner. Instead, the businessman offered him $7M to carry out an assassination.
Retired Assistant Commissioner of Police, Paul Slowe, is heading the inquiry to investigate and review the full range of the actions and responses by the Guyana Police Force to the report of the assassination plot.
Assistant Commissioner Ramnarine was recalled to the stand at the behest of Attorney for the Police Commissioner, Glenn Hanoman.
On July 28, last, Ramnarine told the Commission that he believed that investigations were not properly done.
He had told Commissioner Slowe, that the only time he was updated on the status of the investigation into the matter was when he spoke with Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum during a cell phone conversation they had on March 30.
ABSOLUTELY UNTRUE
During his examination of the Assistant Commissioner yesterday, Attorney Hanoman therefore suggested that Ramnarine had made the statement because he held malice against the Police Commissioner, Seelall Persaud and Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum.
The Assistant Commissioner dismissed the statement, calling it “absolutely untrue”.
Ramnarine admitted, however, that he had been the subject of an investigation of how he had granted 113 firearm licences. The Commissioner of Police had sent the file to the Office of Professional Responsibility, after allegations surfaced that Ramnarine had been making millions of dollars daily from the sale of firearm licences. The Assistant Commissioner said, however, that this was not enough for him to hold malice against the Top Cop and other ranks of the force
“Maybe I was upset and maybe surprised, and probably disappointed, but I am a professional. I believe in discharging my duties when I would have acted as Commissioner in keeping with the Constitution in relation to the Police.”
IMRAN KHAN TAKES THE STAND
Businessman Imran Khan also took the stand yesterday. He denied suggestions that he had asked Commissioner of Police, Seelall Persaud any favours in relation to his brother, Nizam Khan, after his arrest in March 2017.
During his testimony before the commission, Imran Khan revealed that he shared a friendship with the Commissioner that dates back more than a decade. However, he maintained that he has never asked the Top Cop for any favours on behalf of himself and any family members.
Khan told the Commission that his relationship with Persaud was based on information and intelligence sharing—from time to time he would assist the police with their work.
“Our friendship was not for favours,” he said
It was pointed out to Imran Khan that on March 29, last, he made two telephone calls to the Commissioner. But Khan denied that the calls had anything to do with asking favours of the Commissioner, He said that the calls were to inform Persaud of the impending raid on the home of his younger brother. He said his brother was later arrested.
The businessman recounted that he was also arrested and charged for disorderly behaviour. He stated that he never behaved in a disorderly manner. He said that he only expressed discontent at the police for refusing to take a report from him.
Khan said too that at the time of his arrest, police had seized his firearm—it was subsequently returned.
Questioned further about the types of firearms, he owns, Khan told the Commission that he has a number of guns, including a .233 rifle. He detailed that the weapon is semi automatic, approximately 20 to 21 inches in length, and black in colour.
The COI will continue next week.
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