Three police officers, including a woman police constable, have been transferred out of the Central Division’s Criminal Investigations Department (CID) in an apparent fallout over the recent arrest of businessman Sheron Sukhdeo.
The officers, two of whom were assigned to the CID for the past six years and the other who was recently assigned to the shift, were told of their transfer by the Division’s Snr Supt Jayson Forde at about 5 pm on Friday, the Sunday Guardian was told.
According to a senior police officer, the transfer stemmed from an allegation made by a police sergeant attached to the Court and Process staff, which was also backed up by an SRP sergeant from a Patrol Unit, in relation to how Sukhdeo was processed after his arrest.
The source said both sergeants apparently had objections to Sukhdeo being taken into the CID office subsequent to his arrest last Tuesday.
“Those officers allegedly formed the view that Sheron was given a certain treatment,” the source said.
When asked if it was special treatment to make Sukhdeo comfortable, all the police source would divulge was that the treatment was “just the process and general policing they (the three officers) were performing with Sheron.”
The police source said the decision to transfer the officers also strangely came hours after Sukhdeo was released on bail.
Sukhdeo, of Orchard Gardens, Chaguanas, was charged with assault after his wife, Rachael, posted photographs showing cuts and bruises she allegedly sustained due to an alleged recent domestic violence abuse incident.
On Wednesday, Sukhdeo appeared before a Chaguanas magistrate at the Tunapuna Magistrates Court. He was granted $85,000 bail, but his relatives were not able to get the final paperwork from the clerk of the peace until Friday. This delay cost Sukhdeo two nights behind prison walls.
When the news of the domestic violence abuse surfaced in the public domain, allegations also surfaced about Sukhdeo’s alleged close and friendly relations with some officers assigned to the Central Division, specifically the Chaguanas Police Station.
Meanwhile, Speak Out T&T yesterday expressed concern for the life of Sukhdeo’s wife after viewing a social media post which dealt with the issue.
The activist group said it had been monitoring social media activity and was disturbed by a post which featured comments under a photo of what looked like a semi-automatic gun in someone’s lap.
Speak Out T&T called on people to share the post to make the police aware of it.