Magistrate: No abuse in retrying A&V CEO

A MAGISTRATE in the Siparia court ruled this morning that there is no abuse of process in the Director of Public Prosecutions' (DPP) re-laying charges against A&V CEO Nazim Hanif Baksh and his son-in-law.

Senior magistrate Margaret Alert said charges of assault on a media photographer and malicious damage to his camera should be read again to Baksh and Billy Ramsundar.

Both are charged with assaulting Guardian Media Ltd photographer Kristian De Silva on September 15, 2017, at A&V, Nazim Avenue, San Francique, Penal. They are also charged with malicious damage to his camera.

The charges stemmed from media investigations into the disclosure of an audit report by the now-defunct state-owned Petroptrin implicating A&V in fake oil payment claims.

Alert freed Baksh and Ramsundar in July of the charges after state attorneys failed to prosecute them after two years.

However, two weeks later, the DPP reinstituted the charges.

This morning Alert gave a written ruling on submissions by Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, SC, that the re-laying was an abuse of the court process. State attorney Sabrina Dougdeen-Jaglal responded that Baksh and Ramsundar suffered no prejudice because the trial never got off the ground.

Alert agreed and dismissed the abuse-of-process argument.

Maharaj, leading attorneys Jagdeo Singh, Prakash Ramadhar and Michael Rooplal, told Alert her judgment needed to be studied to determine whether a judicial review should be filed in the High Court.

The case was postponed to December 4.