Assistant Commissioner of Police Deodath Dulalchan has confirmed he has been detailed by acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams to investigate the leak of the Police Complaints Authority’s (PCA) Flying Squad report. And People’s National Movement PRO Senator Faris Al-Rawi, who first told of the report in Parliament on April 8, says he is surprised by this but is ready to assist in the investigations.
Al-Rawi said he was not officially notified by anyone from the police service, but said he gave Williams the assurance, in a telephone call he made to him, that he will co-operate with the probe. The senator said he was contacted last Friday by several members of the media, who informed that him Williams had “supposedly commenced investigations” into him personally in respect of the PCA matter he raised in Parliament.
“I expressed surprise at this information and telephoned acting Commissioner Williams to inquire as to whether there was any truth in this matter,” Al-Rawi told the T&T Guardian. “He asked me where I got the information from and I said several media people called me to inquire as to same. “The commissioner told me he was a police officer of long standing, some 30 years experience, and he would conduct such investigation as was required and would not be influenced by any political entities.
“I told Williams I would be pleased to assist in any appropriate investigation in so far as I will be properly able to. Since then, I have heard nothing from any officer from the police service.” Al-Rawi said he found it “curiously conspicuous,” however, that the Newsday newspaper seems to be able to give a ball by ball account of what Williams, Dulalchan and the police are supposedly doing or not doing in relation to the PCA leak matter.
Dulalchan was given one month to complete a report on the investigation to determine if a crime was committed and by whom. Williams, according to the newspaper report, confirmed this and said the probe was based on the issue of disclosure of confidential information. The report was done after the PCA probed the formation of a New Flying Squad Investigations Unit, a former unit headed by deceased commissioner Randolph “The Fox” Burroughs.
Mervyn Cordner, a former member of the original Flying Squad, claimed the National Security Ministry supported and funded the unit but the ministry denied this. Cordner, at the same time, complained the ministry was not releasing funds. The PCA investigated the matter and its report ended up in the hands of Al-Rawi and the media.
The probe reportedly cleared former national security minister Jack Warner but his former advisor Garvin Heerah, who now heads the National Operations Centre, was implicated. Attempts to reach PCA director Gillian Lucky were unsuccessful.