On Wednesday at a news conference at the Police Administration Building, Port of Spain, where a US$1.5 million Gang Reduction and Community Programme (GRACE) was launched, Minister of National Security Fitzgerald Hinds indicated that while he was minister of works, someone offered him a watch valued at over $.5 million as a bribe, following which he drove the person out of his office and reported the matter to the PM.
Minister Hinds as a senior attorney-at-law, and seasoned legislator, and the Prime Minister, as head of the Government, should know that under Section 3(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, the offer of a bribe to an office-holder is a criminal offence punishable by a fine of $500,000 and imprisonment for ten years.
The questions that arise from the above, at the very least are:
1. Who was the person offering the bribe to the minister?
2. Did Minister Hinds immediately, or anytime up to now, report the corruption crime to the police? If not, why not?
3. What was the PM’s response when told of this corruption crime by Minister Hinds?
4. Did the PM instruct Minister Hinds to report the corruption crime to the police? If not, why not?
5. Can Minister Hinds legitimately and with “grace” continue to hold the office of Minister of National Security (and line minister for the T&T Police Service) while the above questions remain unanswered?
6. Can the PM, because of his continuing stance on corruption, maintain silence on the above issues?
The above is a shocking state of affairs, to say the least.
BJP big guns to lend Himachal CM Jai Ram Thakur a hand as corruption, factions mount hurdles
Published
29 mins ago
on
May 27, 2022
By
However, it may not be all smooth for the party in the hilly state.
Corruption charges against officials, including in the unravelling police recruitment paper leak scam, allegations that the Chief Minister’s Office is protecting them and delaying investigation, intensified factionalism, the inability of Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur to take everyone along, and simmering disillusionment among youth over joblessness are among the issues, party men fear, which are dragging down the BJP as it seeks to overcome anti-incumbency.
Outspoken former CM and party veteran Shanta Kumar earlier this week voiced this discontent, when he hailed AAP leader and Punjab CM Punjab Bhagwant Mann for taking “an extremely courageous step” against corruption, by sacking and arresting his own minister over bribery allegations. Kumar said there should be no tolerance towards corruption and every government should adopt transparency.
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Among those fending off allegations of corruption in Himachal is CM Thakur’s top official, Chief Secretary Ram Subhag Singh. The Prime Minister’s Office had also flagged the alleged irregularities in the construction of the Wildlife Interpretation Centre in Nagrota, when Singh had been additional chief secretary in the Forest Department, sources said. The CM is seen to be delaying the investigation against Singh.
In the constable recruitment examination held in March – the biggest such recruitment after the pandemic – question papers were allegedly sold for Rs 6-10 lakh to more than a thousand applicants. An investigation has indicated the involvement of several officials.
As pressure mounts on Thakur, the many factions within the BJP have raised their heads. “Leaders like former chief minister P K Dhumal, his son (Union minister) Anurag Thakur, Shanta Kumar, Nadda, Rajya Sabha MP Indu Goswami, Jai Ram Thakur himself… all have groups within the state unit,” a party leader said.
The rival leaders have been biding their chance since the BJP’s humiliating defeat in several by-elections last year, including for the Mandi Lok Sabha constituency and the Arki, Fatehpur and Jubbal-Kotkhai Assembly seats.
Himachal BJP chief Suresh Kumar Kashyap played down the corruption allegations, saying the Thakur government had handled them seriously. “People have seen the government handing over the recruitment scam case to the CBI. There will be action against the culprits. It is also taking steps to conduct the exam soon,” he told The Indian Express, adding that the Opposition would not be able to gain advantage from the issue.
Kashyap also asserted that both the government and party were working in tandem to ensure the BJP returns to power.
While the BJP’s eyes have been largely on AAP, which is focused on Himachal Pradesh after the spectacular win in neighbouring Punjab, the Congress too is getting its act together.
A source said Mandi MP Pratibha Singh, who was handed over the reins of the Congress recently, and her son Vikramaditya have started bringing about good changes in Upper Himachal Pradesh.
“The Youth Congress is taking up the recruitment scam issue in a big way. With unemployment an issue among the youth in Himachal Pradesh, it is striking the right chords,” he said.
All expectations now rest on Modi’s Shimla rally, where he will address “the major concerns” of the hill state. “Things will be different after the Prime Minister’s visit,” a leader said.
Williamsport man charged with indecent assault, corruption of minors | News
Published
1 hour ago
on
May 27, 2022
By
Williamsport, Pa. — A Williamsport man was charged after an investigation into accusations of indecent assault made in 2021.
Troy Bennett Bailey, 55, allegedly assaulted a 10-year-old relative several times, according to a police affidavit.
Police said Bailey allegedly demanded the accuser to touch him and showed pornographic movies. Bailey exposed himself to the accuser and told them to rub his genitals approximately four times throughout 2019, police said.
According to the affidavit, Bailey was 53 years old at the time of the incidents.
Bailey was charged with four third-degree felonies that included indecent assault of a person less than 13 years of age, disseminate explicit material to minors, corruptions of minors, and four counts of unlawful contact with a minor. He was also charged with four counts of first-degree misdemeanor indecent exposure.
Bailey is scheduled to appear in court on May 31 for a preliminary hearing with Judge Christian Frey.
He is incarcerated at the Lycoming County Prison in lieu of $150,000 monetary bail.
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NEWARK — Punctuating one of the worst police scandals in Paterson history, a federal jury on Thursday found Sgt. Michael Cheff guilty of civil rights crimes, making him the sixth member of the self-proclaimed “robbery squad” of cops to be convicted.
The verdict followed five days of testimony in which Cheff’s five co-conspirators admitted to robbing, beating and abusing people they illegally stopped and searched in Paterson – and later joking about their crimes in text messages that became key evidence for the government.
Federal prosecutors repeatedly told the jury in the trial that Cheff was the pivotal man in the scheme, the “inside guy” who allowed the rogue cops to prey upon Paterson residents. Cheff, who joined the Paterson force in 1996, helped them cover up their crimes with bogus police reports and sometimes took a share of the cash they stole, according to prosecutors.
The jury didn’t buy assertions by Cheff’s lawyer that the sergeant was simply “an easy-going” boss who was taken advantage of by the five criminals he supervised – Jonathan Bustios, Daniel Pent, Eudy Ramos, Frank Toledo and Matthew Torres.
Cheff’s conviction represents the final victory for the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office in a probe in which eight city cops were convicted over the course of four years, the officers falling like dominoes as they lined up to testify against each other.
The five fired cops who testified against Cheff had signed cooperation agreements that promised federal prosecutors would submit letters to the judge recommending they get a break on their jail time.
What impact their testimony and those agreements will have on their prison terms remains to be seen. Though the men pleaded guilty to their crimes more than two years ago, federal authorities have delayed their sentencing until after the Cheff case.
The FBI probe also snared a Paterson officer, Ruben McAusland, who had been regularly selling drugs from his patrol vehicle while on duty and in uniform in 2017 and 2018. When federal agents arrested McCausland they found on his phone a video of him brutally assaulting a suicide patient in a hospital emergency room, resulting in a separate case in which he and his police partner, Roger Then, were convicted.
Federal authorities previously had said Cheff faced a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for the false records charge and 10 years for the civil rights conspiracy.
