One day after the Integrity Commission announced it had terminated its investigation into Emailgate allegations, its lone female commissioner, Dr Shelly Anne Lalchan, has reportedly quit. CNC 3 News last night reported that Lalchan had tendered her resignation. Commission chairman Zainool Hosein, a retired Appeal Court judge, could not be reached for comment. Lalchan was appointed in June 2013 by President Anthony Carmona.
Two years ago, Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley, during a motion of no confidence against Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, read a thread of 31 emails which discussed a criminal conspiracy to kill a journalist; bug the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, offer the DPP a judgeship, among other things, in the wake of the passage of Section 34, a provision of the Administration of Justice (Indictable Offences) Act, which was subsequently repealed.
The emails disclosed by Rowley bore similar addresses of four senior Cabinet ministers, including Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, then attorney general Anand Ramlogan, Works and Infrastructure Minister Suruj Rambachan and former national security minister Gary Griffith. The allegations have been repeatedly denied by Persad-Bissessar and her ministers.
The commission said on Tuesday there was “no or insufficient grounds” to proceed. The commission’s Web site said Lalchan was an ophthalmologist and surgeon. She was a fellow of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, member of the American Academy of Ophthalmologists, member of the International Society of Glaucoma Surgery and founder of the West Indian Society of Glaucoma Surgeons.
It said Lalchan returned to T&T to continue her medical practice after spending the majority of her career in the United Kingdom.