Guyana’s Deputy Police Commissioner sent on leave amid allegations of rape

The Guyana Po­lice Force (GPF) has con­firmed that the Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Fizal Karim­baksh has been sent on leave pend­ing the out­come of an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to al­le­ga­tions of rape and threat­en­ing be­hav­iour made against him.

The GPF said that Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice, Dr. Clifton Hick­en, fol­low­ing re­ceipt of the re­port, es­tab­lished a team to con­duct a thor­ough in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the al­le­ga­tions.

It said that ad­di­tion­al­ly, the fe­male Po­lice In­spec­tor who made the re­port has been trans­ferred from the Spe­cial Or­gan­ised Crime Unit (SOCU) to Re­gion­al Po­lice Di­vi­sion 4 ‘A’.

“The Guyana Po­lice Force wish­es to as­sure the pub­lic that the al­le­ga­tions are be­ing treat­ed with the se­ri­ous­ness they war­rant and that the in­ves­ti­ga­tion will be con­duct­ed pro­fes­sion­al­ly, im­par­tial­ly and in ac­cor­dance with es­tab­lished pro­ce­dures.”

The GPF said that it re­mains com­mit­ted to en­sur­ing that due process is af­ford­ed to all par­ties in­volved and that the “in­ves­ti­ga­tions are on­go­ing and fur­ther in­for­ma­tion will be pro­vid­ed as nec­es­sary”.

Last week, Home Af­fairs Min­is­ter Onei­dge Wal­rond said she would meet with Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice to ad­dress the al­le­ga­tions against Karim­baksh, who al­so heads SOCU.

“The Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion (PSC) ul­ti­mate­ly should be the one to do that. Bar­ring the fact that it’s not cur­rent­ly con­sti­tut­ed, I would as­sume that it’s a dis­cus­sion we need to have be­tween the com­mis­sion­er and my­self on how we ad­dress that,” Wal­rond said.

He added: “How­ev­er, it is my view, and I hold this strong view, that he should be sent on ad­min­is­tra­tive leave pend­ing the in­ves­ti­ga­tion”. —GEORGE­TOWN, Guyana (CMC)