Police investigating assault allegations against Fyzabad MP Chandresh Sharma intend to question the former minister before the week is out. Public information officer for the T&T Police Service, Insp Wayne Mystar, yesterday confirmed chief investigating officer Insp Naim Gyan will interview Sharma by Friday. Sharma will be interviewed for the alleged assault of businesswoman Sacha Singh on March 12 at Grand Bazaar, Valsayn.
The squabble and alleged assault are now the subject of a police investigation. Singh, the managing director of AMS Biotech Security Concept and Amsure T&T Ltd, based in Piarco, gave a statement to police on March 28, alleging she was physically abused by Sharma outside the shopping mall. She and Sharma were romantically involved.
On March 31, Sharma resigned from his ministerial post. His resignation was accepted by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar after calls from leader of the Congress of the People Prakash Ramadhar and Fixin T&T for him to step down or be fired. So far, Singh and the key witness in the assault, a 53-year-old school teacher, have given Gyan detailed reports about the incident. Sharma is the last to be interviewed by the police.
Yesterday, Mystar said he spoke to Gyan, who was “still compiling statements from some other people but the former minister will be interviewed before the end of the week. Rest assured he (Sharma) will be interviewed.” Within hours of Singh going public, a smear campaign was launched against her by United National Congress supporters on the party’s Facebook page and other sites posing nude and semi-nude photographs of the woman.
In the face of the campaign, Singh appealed to Persad-Bissessar to appeal to her supporters to stop the attacks.