March 14 ,2021
Kaieteur News – The owner of SleepIn Hotel and Carnival Casino, Clifton Bacchus, is among 32 persons arrested for breaching the Covid-19 curfew.
The arrests were made between 22:00 hrs. on Friday and 03:30 hrs. yesterday, during an operation conducted by Region 4 ‘A” ranks. The operation was focused on enforcing the Covid-19 regulations.
According to police reports, SleepIn Bar and Carnival Casino, located on Church Street, Georgetown, was found operating way past the Covid-19 curfew time. Based on the Covid-19 regulations bars, restaurants or any other business place must be closed by 21:30 hrs.
As a result of this breach, police arrested Bacchus, the proprietor of the SleepIn, two of his bartenders and ten Chinese nationals, who were patrons of the establishment at the time.
The ranks did not stop there; they also made a stop at Club Altitude located at Sandy Babb Street, Kitty. There they arrested 18 patrons of the club and its owner, Meer Rahaman.
Club Privilege
Other stops were also made at Club Privilege located on Main Street, Georgetown, and Kairos Bar located on Charlotte Street, Bourda. Arrested from these nightspots were Mark Allen, Manager of Kairos Bar, and Delon Moffett and Akeem Carmichael, bartender and assistant bartender of Club Privilege.
All of the curfew offenders were placed on cash bail and are expected to appear in court soon.
The GPF recently came under fire from Giftland Mall owner, Roy Beepat, after he accused its ranks of being selective in their Covid-19 operations. On March 6, ranks had arrested three of the bar owners who operated concessions at the Giftland Mall. Those operators have since been placed before the court for breaching the Covid-19 curfew.
Beepat, however, had alleged that his business establishment was being harassed by police over the Covid-19 curfew. In a statement that Giftland Mall had sent out, claims were made that while ranks would turn up to verify its adherence to the curfew, other nightspots around Georgetown would operate as per normal.
A video was even posted along with its statement, on its Facebook page to support its allegations against the force. The GPF in a response statement insisted that this was not so, and claimed that it has enforced these regulations on several other establishments across the capital city and the country.
Since the arrests of the Giftland Strip Bar operators, Georgetown police had moved to make other arrests at Club Nova located at Robb and Cummings Streets, Georgetown, and other locations. One video of subsequent operations which surfaced on social media showed patrons scattering as police attempted to apprehend curfew breakers at Club Nova.