CoP has until Friday to produce Jaagriti warrant

Police Commissioner Gary Griffith has until Friday to provide a copy of the warrant the police claimed they used to search the premises of Central Broadcasting Services (CBS), umbrella company for TV and Radio Jaagriti. The company's CEO is Satnarayan Maharaj, head of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha.

The police searched the station after the Telecommunications Authority of TT (TATT) issued a standard warning to CBS.

The notice came hours after Maharaj was seen on TV Jaagriti's programme Maha Sabha Strikes Back, where he said of the people of Tobago that they were lazy and the men were rapists.

The police were investigating Maharaj under the Sedition Act.

One of Maharaj's attorneys, Dinesh Rambally, said Maharaj's legal team wrote to the CoP last Thursday giving him seven days to produce a copy of the warrant.

Rambally said, "We haven't gotten a response from the commissioner as yet. He said there was a warrant, so what is the difficulty in giving us a copy?

"That is the logical question to ask and easily answered. Why is it we couldn't get a copy when they executed that warrant? While he is ranting and raving that there was a warrant and, 'Don't be foolish, there would have been a warrant,' we are saying, 'Okay, if you had a warrant, why didn't you just let us see it?'"

Rambally said on Tuesday's programme on Jaagriti footage was aired showing attorneys asking for the warrant, and the police on the scene were recorded saying no, there was not, and they would have to take legal advice on it.