A suspended policeman may have been spared a conviction yesterday after pleading guilty to three charges, but his future in the Police Service still hangs in the balance.
Rishi Powder, who was last attached to the Couva Police Station, was placed on a five-year bond to keep the peace, ordered to attend an anger management programme and also to pay $7,500 in compensation. He pleaded guilty before Justice Gillian Lucky in the San Fernando High Court earlier this week to two charges of common assault and a malicious damage.
Powder committed the crimes at his neighbour’s bar in Penal in 2007 while he was intoxicated. His attorney Subhas Panday said he had a problem with alcohol abuse, but he has since cleaned up his act.
In passing sentence, the judge noted that Powder was off-duty, but whether so or not she said that type of conduct by people who are supposed to maintain law and order ought not to be accepted in society.
And whether or not he will be reinstated in the service, the judge said, was not a decision for the court to make.
She said that was the most aggravating factor in the case, adding that Powder had been in the service for four years.
Powder decided to plead guilty after the court indicated that a non-custodial sentence was the maximum sentence it would impose if he pleaded guilty.
The victims, Kishore Chatoor and his wife Usha, asked the court to be lenient with Powder, both saying that he had changed his life. Testimonials were also submitted on his behalf. The facts, as outlined by State attorney Hema Soondarsingh, was that on May 27, 2007, Powder went to Chatoor’s Bar, reeking of alcohol and staggering, where he ordered $5 worth of pork. Chatoor said he had no pork.
Powder became disrespectful and verbally abusive to Chatoor, his wife and customers. He lit a firecracker and threw it behind the counter near Usha’s feet.
Powder eventually got into his car, reversed and slammed into the Chatoor’s garage gate. The car went through the garage, knocked down a concrete wall and a shed, causing $7,135 in damage.
The car became stuck in a drain. Powder was arrested and charged in March 2008.