Magistrate Chandra Sohan remanded a policeman to prison yesterday when he appeared at the New Amsterdam Court on charges of demanding money with menace and with larceny of a revolver and ammunition.
It is alleged that around 5:05 pm on September 19, Kelvin Chase, 27 of Republic Road, New Amsterdam stole a .38 service revolver with matching rounds from a safe at the Central Police Station.
The court heard too that later the same evening Chase reportedly used the weapon to extort $600,000 from Nadia Jacobs, the owner of Uprising Bar/Nadia’s Shopping Plaza at Canefield, East Canje. He was not required to plead to the offences.
The weapon, valued $116,000 and ammo which cost $540, are the property of the Guyana Police Force and were not issued to him and neither was he on duty at the time.
He had reportedly demanded the money as ransom after blackmailing Jacobs’ husband about counterfeit currency being found on their premises. His plan was however shredded to bits when he turned up to collect the money and an employer knocked the gun out of his hand with a baseball bat.
He was also severely beaten.
The police, who were alerted about the plot and had been in the area, responded promptly and arrested him at the scene.
Police Chief Prosecutor, ‘B’ Division, Inspector Fazil Karimbaksh requested that bail be refused on the grounds of the nature, gravity and prevalence of the offences and the fact that “a member of the force stole the weapon to commit the crimes.”
In his application for bail, attorney-at-law, Ramesh Rajkumar said that his client was beaten and hospitalized. He also mentioned that the person who beat his client is facing assault charges at another court.
The matter was adjourned to October 10 for report.