Two T&T cops charged over breach of firearm act

(Trinidad Guardian) An act­ing po­lice su­per­in­ten­dent with over 35 years of ser­vice has been ar­rest­ed and charged for un­law­ful­ly caus­ing the re­lease of a po­lice con­sta­ble with­out him be­ing pros­e­cut­ed for the of­fence of neg­li­gence in breach of the Firearm Act. He was al­so charged for the re­lease of the con­sta­ble’s cousin with­out him be­ing pros­e­cut­ed for the of­fence of pos­ses­sion of a firearm.

Ac­cord­ing to a po­lice re­port, on Feb­ru­ary 16 at about 1 am, PC Randy Kham­chan, 26, who was at­tached to the Or­gan­ised Crime In­tel­li­gence Unit, was at a night club in Cen­tral Trinidad in the com­pa­ny of his cousin, Kevin Roopc­hand, who was cel­e­brat­ing his 32nd birth­day.

Roopc­hand, 46, of Cou­va, is em­ployed as a ter­mi­nal work­er at Plipde­co.

Po­lice said Roopc­hand was al­leged­ly found in pos­ses­sion of one TTPS-is­sued Sigsauer Pis­tol that was is­sued to Kam­chan. The firearm was seized by po­lice of­fi­cers and Kam­chan and Roopc­hand were tak­en in­to cus­tody at the Cou­va Po­lice Sta­tion.

Po­lice al­so al­lege that at about 2 am, Ag Supt Si­mon Gill, who is at­tached to the Cen­tral Di­vi­sion, was at the Cou­va sta­tion when he un­law­ful­ly caused the re­lease of Kam­chan and Roopc­hand for the of­fences for which they were held.

Of­fi­cers of the Pro­fes­sion­al Stan­dards Bu­reau con­duct­ed an in­ves­ti­ga­tion and on April 17 ar­rest­ed Gill, 56, who has 37 years of ser­vice.

At about 5 pm on April 18, Act­ing Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tion Joanne Hon­ore-Paul gave ad­vice and Gill was charged for the of­fence of per­vert­ing the course of pub­lic jus­tice. The charge was laid by ASP An­tho­ny Re­my. Gill will ap­pear be­fore a Cou­va mag­is­trate on April 23.

Kam­chan was charged on April 16 for the of­fence of neg­li­gence with the TTPS firearm and his cousin Roopc­hand was al­so charged for the pos­ses­sion of the said firearm by Cpl Adri­an Smith.

Both Kam­chan and Roopc­hand ap­peared in the Cou­va Mag­is­trate Court be­fore Mag­is­trate Raphael on April 16 and their cas­es were ad­journed to May 14.

The in­ves­ti­ga­tion was led by Ag ACP To­taram Dookhie and as­sist­ed by Sgt Cleve Grey, Cpl Lawrence Joe­field, Cpl Ralph Ram­per­sad and Cpl David Si­mon.