Hemwattie Singh, called ‘Mona,’ who along with her sister, Yasminie Ramsew, called ‘Tina,’ became a local sensation due to a video of them berating police at an outpost back in December, has filed an action against the Attorney General for breach of rights.
In her suit against the AG, the Commissioner of Police, Constable Nieshet Park and policeman Onkar Sooknanan, Singh is seeking $1.2 million in damages for, among other things, what she says is wrongful deprivation of her liberty.
In court documents seen by this newspaper, the 28-year-old contends that the defendants violated her fundamental rights by imposing cruel and inhuman treatment on her and wrongfully depriving her of her liberty on 3rd December, 2019 at the Rose Hall Police Station.
According to Singh, who is the claimant, she “endured inhuman and degrading treatment, assault, torture and suffered pecuniary losses,” and is asking for $200,000 in damages.
She is also seeking damages in excess of $1,000,000 for unlawful and malicious publication of the video by Park and Sooknanan on the internet via YouTube and Facebook of her pictures and/or images and videos prejudicial without her permission.
This, she contends, is a violation of her human rights to privacy and damage of her reputation and character which lowered her esteem in the eyes of the public, causing her again to suffer pecuniary losses.
Against this background, the young woman wants the court to declare that the unlawful and malicious publication of her photographs and/or images and videos prejudicial without her permission is an interference of due process by which she cannot be guaranteed a fair trial by an impartial tribunal and so the proceedings against her in the Magistrate’s Court should be declared void and therefore quashed.
The sisters were slapped with almost a dozen charges between them.
Singh was charged with assaulting Sooknanan and damaging his cellphone, worth $190,000 along the Port Mourant Public Road, disorderly behaviour, assaulting Police Constable Park and resisting arrest at the Rose Hall Outpost.
Meanwhile, Ramsew, 22, was charged with dangerous driving resulting in an accident, failure to stop after an accident, failure to report an accident, resisting arrest, disorderly behaviour and assaulting Constable Park at the Rose Hall Outpost.
They have been granted bail in the total sum of $100,000.
In her suit before the High Court, Singh is hoping to be granted a conservatory order to stay the proceedings against her at the Whim and Albion Magistrates’ Court.
The young woman also wants to be granted court costs and any further order which the court may deem just to grant.
Singh’s application was filed by attorney Saphier Husain.
In a video of them at the outpost, which went viral on social media, the siblings were seen abusing the ranks present at the Rose Hall Outpost. The two young women, who were recorded by lawmen, also hurled several racial slurs at the ranks present.
The sisters, however, claimed that after they were denied the opportunity to do their own video recording in the police outpost Constable Park assaulted them.
