Police Commissioner, David Ramnarine does not believe that the law enforcement agencies should be indicted in relation to the disappearance of convicted drug lord, Mr. Barry Dataram.
During a Press Conference on Friday, Ramnarine was asked whether he thinks more caution should have been exercised in the matter to which he said “Hold a minute! Lets put this into perspective… If it were that high profile matter and it was properly regarded by the appropriate people, we were not the ones who granted him bail. I am saying nothing more.”
When pressed for additional information in relation to the forged documents used by Dataram to leave the country, he said “I think I have already said enough on that matter. It’s a lot in the press already too.”
Dataram and his common-law wife, Anjanie Boodnarine, escaped from Guyana days before his case for being in possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking at his Diamond, East Bank Demerara home in April 2015. However, he was sentenced in absentia to five years imprisonment and fined GYD$164.2M.
In a statement on Thursday, Dataram’s flight from Guyana, was something, which could have been avoided.
“Mr. Dataram is a person of interest. He is a well-known character in Guyana and I would expect that even though the judicial branch is separate, there should be a greater level of alertness on the part of the Magistracy, in the Judiciary, in matters like this and I don’t regard it as a failing on the part of law enforcement agencies but it is definitely an error which ought to have been avoided. The danger posed in having somebody who is now a convict out there, out of the jurisdiction is going to be harmful to our national interest so I would urge the law enforcement agencies to alert their counterparts in neighbouring states. Even though Mr. Dataram might have a foreign passport, it might be a forged passport. I would urge all law enforcement agencies to use every legitimate measure to bring him back into this jurisdiction so that he can serve his sentence,” the President said in an invited comment.
“If he is in Suriname as is suspected, the Commissioner of Police has been instructed to try to ascertain his whereabouts in neighbouring countries but he is not using a Guyana passport that much we know,” the Head of State said.
