By FRANCIS JOSEPH
This is a story that is not going away.
First, a clerk was kidnapped and murdered.
Secondly, two suspects for that murder were arrested and died in police custody.
The Police Unit which were looking into this matter was disbanded by the acting Commissioner of Police.
Seven police officers were suspended in connection with the deaths of the two prisoners.
Just one of them was charged arising out of the deaths.
The suspension of an Inspector was lifted and he is back on duty.
But another – a Constable – went to court over his four-year suspension – and won and will receive damages.
What a tangled web!
THE SCENE
Andrea Bharatt, a clerk at the Arima Magistrates’ Court, was found dead on February 4, 2021, at the foot of a precipice in the Heights of Aripo after being kidnapped on January 28. She was last seen entering a car which she thought was a taxi on King Street, Arima. The car was later found to be outfitted with false “H” licence plates. An autopsy revealed she died from blunt force trauma to the head.
In the wake of her kidnapping and murder, several people, including a woman, were arrested. Two suspects died in police custody.
The first was Andrew Morris, who was arrested on January 31, 2021, and died on February 1, 2021. Police claimed he fell from a chair after refusing food and treatment at the Arima General Hospital.
The second suspect, Joel Belcon, was said to have over 70 charges against him and died at the Intensive Care Unit of the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Mt Hope, where he was taken after being injured while reportedly resisting arrest.
Several police officers were arrested. One of them was Inspector Mark Hernandez, who was the head of the Special Operations Response Team (SORT), the brainchild of then Commissioner of Police, Gary Griffith. He was the only one charged.
But that case collapsed in the High Court in July 2025.
Inspector Hernandez was charged with misbehaviour in public office in connection with the alleged treatment of Andrew Morris and Joel Balcon, two suspects held during investigations into the kidnapping and subsequent murder of Andrea Bharatt in 2021. Both men later died while in police custody.
Inspector Hernandez, then 46, was arrested at his home on April 14, 2021, and charged on April 19, 2021, by officers from the Professional Standards Bureau (PSB) after consultations with Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard, SC. The charge was laid at the Maloney Police Station, and Hernandez was granted bail in the sum of $300,000.
Hernandez spent five days in custody before being released. His attorneys filed a habeas corpus writ on April 18, 2021, seeking his release, after which Justice Betsy Ann Lambert-Peterson ordered investigators to either charge Hernandez or release him by 4:15 p.m. on April 19, 2021.
Hernandez had been under investigation for his role as SORT head in the handling of Morris and Balcon, suspects linked to the kidnapping and murder of Andrea Bharatt. Both men died in hospital following their arrest.
After his case collapsed, Hernandez was recalled to duty in the Police Service and is now posted in the Central Division.
DAMAGES AWARDED
Among the police officers from SORT who were suspended was PC Miguel Jaikaran Singh. The difference was that Singh, through his lawyers, Gerald Ramdeen and Dayadai Harripaul, took the matter to the High Court.
On Thursday, Madame Justice Margaret Mohammed, quashed the suspension and awarded Singh more than $340,000.
The judge ruled that the Commissioner of Police had acted unlawfully in suspending Singh in January 2022 and failing to review the suspension at regular intervals.
Singh received his full salary while on suspension, but lost several allowances during the period. The judge awarded him $263,802.56 for the allowances he lost, together with $80,000 for non-pecuniary loss arising from the suspension, a total of $343.802.56. The judge ordered the Commissioner of Police to pay Singh’s costs.
The court heard that Singh and other SORT officers were arrested in April 2021 and interviewed concerning the deaths. Singh was subsequently released and, according to the judgment, had not been charged with any criminal offence or subjected to disciplinary proceedings in relation to the deaths.
Justice Mohammed found that the notice of suspension issued by the Commissioner failed to provide Singh with sufficient details of the allegations against him.
She noted that the evidence before the court did not identify the offence Singh was alleged to have committed, the basis upon which the commissioner believed he may have committed it, or the allegation which justified his suspension in the public interest or to protect the reputation of the Police Service.
In response to the latest judgment, former Commissioner Griffith told Sunshine Today that “it shows the reckless, irresponsible and unprofessional action the then Commissioner of Police and other Commissioners for the shutting down of SORT. SORT was the most significant in all our operational teams with the massive dent in the criminal activity in the underworld.”
He continued, “They were able to solve and rescue 12 kidnap victims which put an end to kidnapping. They were dealing with extortion, home invasions, dealing with human trafficking, with child prostitution. It put fear in the criminals.”
Griffith said the then Commissioner shut down SORT amid false and misleading statements by the last Government that that unit was involved in extra-judicial killings. He said no one reignited SORT.
