(Trinidad Express) On the advice of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Roger Gaspard, the charges of malicious damage and threatening a potential witness in a criminal investigation have been re-laid against the CEO of A&V Oil and Gas Ltd, Hanif Nazim Baksh.
The police have also re-filed criminal charges against Baksh’s son-in-law, Police Seargent Billy Ramsundar, who was charged with the malicious damage of a camera.
Baksh and Ramsundar were charged jointly with assault occasioning actual bodily harm on Guardian Media photographer Kristian De Silva at Nazim Avenue, Penal on September 15, 2017.
They were served with defendant summons on Tuesday.
Two weeks ago, Siparia Magistrate Margaret Alert dismissed the cases against the men, because, after two years, the State was not ready to proceed with the preliminary enquiry.
In giving her ruling, Alert said there was no good reason why the prosecution should get a further adjournment to proceed with trial.
Attorney Ramesh L Maharaj, who represented the men, had asked that the court to dismiss the charges against Baksh and Ramsundar as the prosecution had sufficient time to be ready over the last two years, with a six-month notice from January 2019 for the prosecution to be ready for the trial.
Maharaj stated that since 2017 the prosecution was called on several occasions and, each time, the prosecution applied for a postponement of the case.
However, the prosecution was given an additional six months to be ready for trial to begin on Monday.
But when the matter was called, the prosecution was not ready to proceed and Maharaj objected, saying the prosecution was making a “mockery” of the orders of the court.
The cases are set for hearing at the Siparia Magistrates’ Court next Tuesday, September 3.
