Leader of the Alliance for Change and Member of Parliament, Mr. Khemraj Ramjattan, shared the view Superintendent Khemraj Shivbran should be disciplined.
In a statement dated June 16, 2023, purportedly made by the minor who was allegedly raped by Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Shivbaran signed as officer taking the statement.
Per the statement, which is doing the social media round, the teen purportedly stated, “the information circulating in the social media doesn’t related to me and I have no knowledge of such information in the public domain…I want to share categorically that I have never shared such information with Mr. Ganesh Mahipaul….”
Speaking to the media at a protest earlier this week, Ramjattan said the Police Force sent a Superintendent to go take a statement from the girl that she must speak the truth. According to Ramjattan, who is also an attorney-at-law, the Police Service commission should call in that Superintendent and discipline him. “You do not do that in the nature of the circumstance of a child and sexual offenses.”
Going further, the member of parliament said the Sexual Offenses Act has amended to include protection of young children, like the teen, and the vulnerable from the police to just take a statement from them, which was on the guidance of Minister Priya Manickchand.
The attorney said there is no knowledge whether the alleged victim made a report that it was not her, but what is known is Superintendent Shivbaran went and got a statement purportedly from the teen. The superintendent, he said, “has to be in some hot water here too. You do not do that.”
According to Ramjattan, who was Minister with responsibility for the Guyana Police Force, the police “were trying to subvert and pervert the process of justice,” and he is “terribly annoyed the professionalism” of the Force the A Partnership of National Unity and Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) government tried so hard to build from 2015 to 2020, “under the various reforms that we had all have gone to naught.”
The Police have since announced they have begun an investigation into the allegation of rape, which came days after public clamouring. However, concerns have been expressed that the investigation is not being conducted consistent with the professionalism required for the alleged crime and the rights of the alleged victim. The police have denied the complaints.
