Constables Daniel Bernard and Isaiah Bernard as they left the Leonora Magistrates’ Court in the company of a family member.

The two policemen, who allegedly beat and burned a teenager who allegedly burgled  their home, were Friday released on a total of GYD$800,000 bail.

The Police Prosecutor, Inspector Matthew did not object to bail.

Constables Daniel Bernard,24, and Isaiah Bernard,26, of Parfaite Harmonie, West Bank Demerara pleaded not guilty to two joint charges when they appeared before Magistrate Ally-Seepaul at the Leonora Magistrates’ Court.

They were required to surrender their passports and report to the Wales Police Station every Friday. The case comes up at the Wales Magistrates’ Court on January 30, 2020.

They were jointly charged with abducting 17-year old Ashkay “Gauge” Budhiram of Westminster, West Bank Demerara with intent to wrongfully confine him. The Bernard brothers were also charged with unlawfully and maliciously wounding Budhiram with intent to maim, disfigure and cause him grievous bodily harm.

The prosecution alleges that on December 16 at about 11:30 am the policemen and six others went to betting betting shop at Schoonard, West Bank Demerara held on Budhiram and beat him with a baseball bat, steel bar and crowbar even as they accused him of breaking into their home.

Budhiram also told investigators that the policemen handcuffed and placed him in a car trunk and sped off.

The Bernard brothers, according to the prosecution, took Budhiram to an unknown location where they threw hot liquid, more than likely water, from a kettle on him.

Budhiram told police that he escaped by swimming across a trench and reported the incident to police.

Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan said his first reaction when he learned that a policeman allegedly burned a teenage intruder suspect with hot water was “jail him”.

“I said ‘jail him, immediately, lock him up’ and I understand they put them in chains too because this is so atrocious,” he told News-Talk Radio Guyana 103.1 FM/Demerara Waves Online News. “That is a disgrace, quite frankly, coming from policemen,” he added.

It was Ramjattan, as an attorney-at-law, who had secured a GYD$6.5 million High Court award in 2011 for Twyon Thomas whose genitals had been burnt during a murder investigation on the West Demerara in 2009. “These things can happen at any stage you know. You try as best to ensure that there is transparency and that the people are arrested and charged and that is what we have done. The police will still have rogue elements in it and that is what has happened here,” said Ramjattan, a former state prosecutor.

The Public Security Minister expressed disappointment that a number of members of the Guyana Police Force were not abiding by human rights principles they are being taught. “You’d think that all the messaging I’m giving to the police force that human rights are going to be emphasised by every policeman,” he said.

Ramjattan frowned on the policemen, who are brothers, for also violating the Guyana Police Force’s rules about probing incidents in which they are victims. “The Standing Orders is that if their houses got burgled some other officer is to go and investigate, not them,” he said.

Police Commissioner, Leslie James earlier this week confirmed that two policemen, who are brothers, have been arrested for allegedly burning the 17-year-old boy at their home. They allegedly arrested him and took him to their residence where they allegedly tortured him during interrogation.

The boy was treated and discharged. He is currently at home resting, while police receive advice on the charges to be instituted on the cops.