Pandit accuses Irfaan of abuse of power
– while a gov’t minister during last administration
PEOPLE’S Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) Presidential Candidate, Irfaan Ali, in 2013, allegedly abused his political power to push for the arrest and charging of renowned Pandit Jagmohan Persaud, for an assault case that was eventually thrown out of court for lack of evidence.
Popularly known as ‘Pandit Jagmohan,’ the pandit said that when he threw a drunken disorderly attendee out for misbehaving during a funeral service for his father in 2013, he did not know that the individual was a relative of Ali’s. He said even if he had known he still would not have done any differently.
“His uncle came to my father’s wake under the influence of alcohol and he was very unruly while the religious service was going on. I pacified him once and 15 – 20 minutes later he came up back to me and started cussing me about my mother and so on, and I walked away; then he came back a third time and I put him out the yard. Members of the community said that was Irfaan’s uncle and I said I didn’t even know. He acted so miserably. I didn’t realize there would have been excessive use of power, and police intervention,” the pandit recalled.
The pandit still vividly remembers the day on the evening of November 1, 2013, when as he recalls it, heavily armed police officers turned up at his home in Uitvlugt based on an arrest warrant that was issued for him.
“I don’t know how there was an arrest warrant. Usually, you get an arrest warrant when the matter enters the court. I was unaware of any such thing, I don’t know how it all ended up at the court. To me it was all a political power being used at the time,” he asserted.
He was not at home at the time; however, there were several guests at his home, as it was the evening of a West Coast Demerara Diwali motorcade.
“It was a Friday at about 6:15 pm. Seven armed police with long guns came to my door; I live in Uitvlugt. I had some singers, musicians, and performers because everyone would congregate by me before they go over to the ground to perform, so they were at my house, and that’s where the police came, but I was at the ground,” Pandit Jagmohan recounted.
The police were looking for him based on an arrest warrant that was issued for him. But according to him, the warrant was issued without him ever being charged or being made aware that he was wanted by the police. He believes it was all orchestrated by Ali.
This was later related to him by another police officer, who pre-empted the other officers and turned up at the location where he was to quietly, and peacefully escort him to the police station without issue.
“An inspector called me and said pandit an arrest warrant is out for you and he took me, in his personal vehicle, to the station and he let me sign a notice that I would return. When we were coming back he told me, “Pandit we were ordered to do this on the motorcade evening, to create a scene, throw the pandit into the vehicle, harass him, do it in the public eye, to show power’,” he related.
He later found out that there was also an attempt, orchestrated by Ali, at the time serving as Minister of Housing, to manipulate the altering of medical records for his uncle to show injuries he did not sustain.
“They were trying to fabricate several stories, they said assault. It even reached the point where he sent one of his officers from the Ministry of Housing, forcing one of the Cuban doctors to write a medical report of what is not there,” he said, noting that he was made aware of what was going on through a family member who worked at the hospital at the time.
The matter eventually went to court, and the Pandit was placed on $50,000 bail; however, the matter was eventually thrown out and the pandit realized it was never about anything more than the abuse of political power to make him a public example.
“I was charged with assault. I sought the intervention of a lawyer, and eventually, that was it… I never went back to court. He was handling the case and the matter was thrown out of the court and I got back my $50,000 because no one showed up at the court,” the Pandit said.
