Trinidad Express) The Fraud Squad is investigating an alleged blackmail attempt against Attorney General Anand Ramlogan by former People’s National Movement (PNM) councillor Dansam Dhansook.
Dhansook is also facing the possibility of being charged by the Director of Public Prosecutions with perverting the course of justice, wasteful employment of police time and blackmail and extortion.
The Fraud Squad investigation of the alleged blackmail attempt is based on letters Dhansook wrote to the Attorney General, one in July and again, in September, in which he threatened to reveal what he said was his version of events pertaining to the just-concluded corruption charges against former PNM works minister Franklin Khan in the courts.
In one letter, dated July 15, Dhansook wrote the AG that his revelations would “cause you [AG Ramlogan] embarrassment” and “let you know that you [allegedly] used me [Dhansook] to do a hatchet job.”
In the letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Sunday Express, Dhansook claims his allegations against Khan and Williams, as contained in his letter to Manning, were “misrepresented” and “fabricated” by Ramlogan. He also said it was Ramlogan who allegedly gave Persad-Bissessar the letter to read in Parliament and, therefore, “mislead” the Parlia-ment.
Dhansook also tells Ramlogan:
“You should realise by now, Mr AG, that I have nothing to loose [sic[… But remember, as the saying goes, ‘a desperate man does desperate things.‘ Therefore, Hon AG, if I don’t get a reply by 19.07.10, I will ‘throw a cat among pigeons’ and see what happens.”
Ramlogan forwarded the letter to DPP Roger Gaspard, stating:
“Dhansook has written several letters and left several messages requesting a personal audience with myself since my assumption of Office as the AG.
“Dhansook resorted to writing me when his calls were not returned. These first three handwritten letters made several requests for Govern-ment contracts and other forms of assistance. I discarded these letters as I saw no point in retaining them, and had no intention of meeting the author.
“Sometime in late July, I received a letter from Dhansook in which he made certain allegations against me. These allegations may have implications for a pending criminal prosecution and I, therefore, forward a copy of Dhansook’s letter for your attention in this regard. Needless to say, the accusations are baseless and false.”
On September 17, Ramlogan forwarded another Dhansook letter to the DPP. In this letter, dated September 13, Dhansook said:
“Recently, I was arrested by the police because of the contents of two (2) letters I wrote to you… I would like you to know that I have no reason to ‘blackmail’ you as you indicated, but I am only seeking bread and justice for my family and I [sic].
“It seems though that you are ignoring me, but I am not easily trampled upon. There-fore, if you continue to ignore me and brush me aside and do not attempt to respond to this matter by 17.09.10, I will have no choice but to have it ventilated in the Senate in the 2010-2011 Budget debate.”
Sources said on Saturday these letters from Dhansook, which the AG sent to the DPP, directly resulted in the dropping of charges against Khan. The DPP was now seeking to have Dhansook charged with possibly perverting the course of justice, wasteful employment of police time and blackmail and extortion, one source added.
Gaspard told the court last Tuesday, based on recent utterances of Dhansook, the DPP engaged the services of the police to establish his credibility. Dhansook’s utterances were reduced to writing, the DPP added, but when checked, his [Dhansook’s] actions amounted to an attempt to pervert the course of public justice.
The issue with Dansam Dhansook goes back to Feb-ruary 2004 when Dhansook, then the PNM councillor for Ecclesville, Rio Claro and a businessman, had alleged in a letter to then Prime Minister Patrick Manning that former Minister Khan and Energy Minister Eric Williams had accepted bribes from him in exchange for lucrative contracts.
In April 2005, the matter became a public issue when then Opposition UNC MP and now Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar read out the letter in Parliament.
It became the subject of a series of Sunday Express investigative reports by Camini Marajh, which implicated a series of former PNM heavyweights, including then party PRO Jerry Narace, in an effort to allegedly subvert the claims.
Back then, too, Manning had forwarded the letter to then Attorney General John Jeremie, who had, in turn, forwarded the claims to the Integrity Commission for investigation.
The Integrity Commission then sent the matter to the police and the then Director of Public Prosecutions Geoffrey Henderson for a criminal investigation into both men, and by January 2006, both Khan and Williams were separately charged for various acts of alleged corruption.
In December 2007, all charges against Williams were dropped while just last week, on September, 21, all charges were also dropped against Khan.
Calls to Dhansook’s home and cell phones on Saturday went unanswered.
Ramlogan, when reached via telephone on Saturday, said:
“I have no comment to make since the matter is a subject of a police investigation, and I would not want to compromise that.”
Last week as he left the courthouse when the case was dismissed, Dhansook was asked by reporters to comment on the possibility of charges being laid against him. He reportedly said: “I have nothing to say.”
