One week after he allegedly pistol-whipped a 19-year-old man and then fired his gun several times during a drunken brawl over a woman at an East Coast Demerara bar, Local Government Minister Kellawan Lall declined to comment on the issue yesterday.
However, the minister did promise this newspaper that he would comment if and when his name was published.
Lall and Joseph Doodnauth, the 19-year-old have reportedly settled the matter, although the teenager has a deep wound on his forehead and is yet to meet the minister face to face on the issue. The gun-toting minister shares a relationship with the teenager’s aunt and apparently mistook Doodnauth for a rival, while at a barbecue event at Vryheid’s Lust, ECD. This led to the government official allegedly slamming the young man in the face with his firearm before discharging several rounds in the air to scare him.
An official in the chamber of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) said yesterday that contrary to reports, the police have not submitted any file on the incident. The official said that up to Friday last the chamber had not received any report, although there was some indication that one would have been provided. The official believes that the delay in submitting the report might be because a settlement had been reached between the minister and the victim.
A senior officer on the East Coast Demerara had told this newspaper last week that the matter was investigated, and a report was filed and sent to the DPP for advice.
Asked whether the DPP would be guided by the out-of-court settlement of the case, the official said the minister committed a crime against the state and it was for the state to decide whether the matter should be dropped.
Doodnauth told Stabroek News on Sunday that he had forgiven the minister and both he and the minister have since indicated to the police that they were not interested in pursuing the case.
Attorney-at-law Vic Puran said that all crimes are committed against the state and legally it is for the state to decide whether a matter should be settled or prosecuted. On the specific allegations against Lall, Puran said from what he has learnt the virtual complainant said that the minister fired shots in the air and not at him. The lawyer said Lall could be charged if his intention was to main, disfigure or disable the victim. “The fact that he shot in the air is an indication that there was no intent to main or disfigure, the victim,” Puran said.
Another lawyer, who asked not to be named, agreed with Puran that in discharging his firearm the minister showed no intention to maim or disfigure, but said also that it was for the state to decide whether the matter should be settled out of the court. The lawyer said it was clear that the minister was admitting to committing an offence by offering to settle the case.
Meanwhile, the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) in a statement yesterday reiterated its abhorrence of the “rule of the lawless” which pervades this society.
According to the party, notwithstanding the report of forgiveness of the minister by Doodnauth, “this case demonstrates that there are two approaches by the police in respect to how gun offences are to be dealt with in Guyana. One set of people are shot down like dogs in the streets,” the party said, while government ministers and well-connected party comrades are allowed to make their own arrangements outside the police’s purview. “It is clear that we have a situation where the proliferation of the use of guns as weapons of choice in the commission of crimes is spiralling out of control. Yet, in a situation where a minister of government and senior party member of the PPP/C is reported to have acted like a ‘deranged’ and trigger happy cowboy, the aggressor is allowed to roam the streets freely, not to mention bestride the corridors of power, while the aggrieved party was detained by the police,” the WPA said.
The party added that anywhere else in the world, the reverse would have been the norm, noting that this latest case which sees another highly placed member of the ruling party violating the law with impunity, outside the scrutiny of Guyana’s courts, is just another indication of what we have come to expect from those in power.
During an interview with this newspaper on Sunday Doodnauth shied away from answering whether he was paid by the minister to drop the case. “It is a family matter and we settled it,” was what he said. Doodnauth explained however, that Lall had a steady relationship with his aunt who lives at Montrose. The young man said he did not live with his aunt; he worked in the hinterland, but whenever he was in Georgetown he would stop over at Montrose. The 19-year-old went on to say that he had seen the minister several times visiting his aunt, but the two of them were never friends.
On the night in question, Doodnauth said, the minister picked up his aunt early and they went out to a barbecue at a bar on the Vryheid’s Lust Public Road. Shortly afterwards he and another relative went to the barbecue. Doodnauth said when he got there he saw his aunt standing with the minister and he called her over and she responded. After she had been standing for a while with him, Doodnauth, said the minister approached them and began using expletives. He said after cursing, the minister who had a bottle of Carib Beer in his hands left, but subsequently returned and cursed him again. He did this for a third time and then went away. Doodnauth said he became very angry with the minister’s conduct and as a result he approached him. “Big man I ain’t like what you deh pon,” he recalled telling the minister. An argument ensued, and the government official then took out his firearm and hit the teenager on the forehead with it. It caused a deep wound, and with blood gushing down his face, Doodnauth said, he left the rum shop for his aunt’s home. The young man said he was pursued by the minister who drove his vehicle close to him and jammed him. He did not fall, but the minister emerged from his vehicle and fired several gunshots in the air. He also threatened him before leaving him to go on his way.
Doodnauth said shortly after the incident he was arrested by the police and taken to Sparendaam Police Station, where the minister also showed up. When asked if he had seen the minister since the incident, Doodnauth replied no, but he noted that the government official would often call at his aunt’s home and enquire about his health. He said that through his aunt the minister had apologized for his conduct.
Asked whether his aunt had pressured him into settling the matter, Doodnauth asserted that he was a “big man.” He acknowledged however that the minister took care of his aunt’s welfare and other things.
Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Roger Luncheon who addressed the matter of the incident in response to a question at his media conference on Friday, said that it would only be discussed at Cabinet if it were introduced by Lall himself, or by Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee. Luncheon told reporters that the information that has been provided so far “seems to suggest that the police and the party involved are addressing the matter
