Imam denied bail for demanding money

Hassan Ali was denied bail on Friday when he appeared before magistrate Cheron Raphael in the Arima First Magistrates’ Court on Friday charged with demanding money by menace.

Ali, the fa­ther of Dana See­ta­hal mur­der ac­cused Ra­jaee Ali, was arrested earlier this week.

The Carapo imam was arrested in November 2018 in connection with a report of kidnapping and assault, but was later released.

A spe­cial police unit, act­ing on in­for­ma­tion re­ceived on al­leged gang-re­lat­ed ac­tiv­i­ties in the Cara­po dis­trict, went to Ali’s home, where he was ar­rest­ed.

Ali was not called upon to plead, as the charge was laid indictably.

He was denied bail, as the police did not produce a case file so there were no summary facts with which to charge him.

Ali and co-defendants Isiah McDonald and Balmatie Harry were remanded in custody and will return to court on December 17.