The police have no
prior information about man who was stopped after he bolted upon seeing a
police vehicle.
The chief interpreter
of the judiciary, Danny Michel was arrested on Thursday afternoon at La
Promenade in the English River district, the police have confirmed. The man has
been closely involved in the Charita case.
Mr Michel was in
possession of an undisclosed amount of cannabis at the time of his
apprehension. The arrest happened by happenstance when the police was
conducting a random patrol in the area. They saw a man run the minute he saw
the police. He also threw the bag he was carrying as he ran – behaviour that
indicated to the police that something untoward was going on.
The police secured
the bag and gave chase to the man. The bag contained an undisclosed amount of
cannabis and the man was later identified as the judiciary’s chief interpreter,
Danny Michel, 48, a resident of Port Glaud.
Unconfirmed sources
say that it is suspected that the drug comes from the Charita case in which Mr
Michel is responsible for producing drugs seized in the case as exhibits in
court. Juliana Esticot, the Registrar, chose not comment on these allegations
nor on the fact that a court official has been arrested. Mr Michel appeared
before Magistrate Samia Govinden yesterday morning and was remanded to custody
until December 2. He has not been formally charged yet.
Mrs Esticot told this
newspaper however that she would not be making any comments on this latest
development unless she has the “management’s green light”. Acting Chief Justice
Karunakaran’s office would also not comment, referring this newspaper back to
the Registrar.
Police spokesperson
Jean Toussaint told this newspaper he not confirm whether the drugs actually
came from Charita, saying that unless the court officially reported that drugs
were missing from the Charita stock, the police could not make this assumption.
Court sources have
told this newspaper that some of the drugs have indeed gone missing. If
confirmed, it is not certain what effect this will have on the Charita case.
Source:Today