President Irfaan Ali last night accepted the resignation of Local Government Minister Nigel Dharamlall, hours after the DPP had advised the police that there was no basis to charge him with rape as the complainant had withdrawn the allegation.
Ali’s disclosure from Trinidad where he is attending a CARICOM Heads meeting followed weeks of public consternation after a 16-year-old girl alleged that she had been groomed and raped by Dharamlall last year. The allegations threatened to tarnish the government and analysts had said that with or without a charge Dharamlall would have to quit both Cabinet and Parliament. The collapse of the case against Dharamlall has also raised questions about whether pressure had been brought on the complainant at various points of the probe to have her recant after having held firmly to her position for weeks. There were also allegations of corruption surrounding the probe. Analysts had said that the PPP/C government would not have wanted to have the stain of a rape charge against one of its ministers.