Detective Constable Richard Persaud, who was accused by two staffers of a Superbet shop in East Canje, Berbice, of taking over $100,000 to assist them in settling a court matter last August, was yesterday remanded to prison after finally appearing in court.
In December, 2019, an arrest warrant was issued after Persaud, of Lot 51, Number 58 Village, Corentyne, failed to appear in the Reliance Magistrate’s court to be charged with corrupt transaction by an agent.
However, Persaud, 29, who recently returned to Guyana, appeared yesterday at the Albion Magistrate’s Court, where the charge was read to him by Magistrate Renita Singh.
An unrepresented Persaud was not required to enter a plea.
The Prosecutor, Inspector Althea Soloman, requested that bail be denied for the accused on the grounds of him being a flight risk.
Magistrate Singh then remanded Persaud to prison.
He is expected to return to the Reliance Magistrate’s Court on August 5th for his next hearing.
Early last August, two employees of the Superbet location at Reliance, East Canje Berbice, were accused of stealing a sum of cash by the owners, who had filed a report at the Reliance Police Station, where Persaud was stationed as a detective at the time.
The two employees were expected to be charged but they had alleged that Persaud had told them to appear at court, where they paid $60,000 each to him to assist them in the case. However, the owners had claimed that Persaud, in an attempt to shake them down, planted an illegal item on their premises which he later pretended to find during a search.
CCTV footage of the premises had shown Persaud and a uniformed rank arriving at the Superbet location in his car after which they stopped in front of the yard for a few minutes and then ventured inside.
Persaud had told Stabroek News that it was raining and as a result they waited for it to subside before walking in. The footage showed Persaud and the rank, whose uniform did not have his name tag, walking in and Persaud looking at the side of a hut, located in the front of the yard, then walking to a stairway, from where he had said they called for the owners.
The footage then showed Persaud, the uniformed rank and the owners, Maria Pardesi, 62, and Hemraj Pardesi, also known as ‘Prem,’ 65, of Lot 9 Reliance Settlement, East Canje, Berbice, heading to the front of the hut.It clearly showed Persaud remaining with the couple in front of the hut while the uniformed rank walked to the back of the hut and returned with an item in his hand. The footage then shows the uniformed rank talking to the couple, after which he showed the item to Persaud.
The uniformed rank, although identified by this newspaper, was never held in the matter nor has he faced any charges to date.
Persaud had claimed to Stabroek News that he believed he was being framed by a senior police officer who had accused him of being one of the sources behind this newspaper’s stories about corrupt police practices in Berbice last year.
Persaud had told Stabroek News that he resigned from the Guyana Police Force after he was arrested and questioned in the matter pertaining to planting the illegal item. The force has not accepted his resignation to date.
It was after the Superbet scandal that the two employees came forward to lawmen at the Reliance Police Station and accused Persaud of taking the money from them.
