Since Friday July 13, the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) of the Metropolitan Police’s Southern Division has been investigating a case of bribery involving a police officer. The policeman, who has some ten years’ service with the force, allegedly took the cell phone of a Pailles resident to make a transfer of Rs 10,000 via the Juice application. This money was allegedly entrusted to the Pailles police officer so that the offender would not be charged with a provisional murder, but only with traffic offences.
The case dates back to Sunday July 9, at around 9:30 pm. During a traffic stop on Avenue Pailles, a team of police officers, including the officer in question, stopped a white Nissan. But the driver didn’t stop immediately. After a chase, the car came to a stop a little further on.
The driver, a 24-year-old local entrepreneur, and his friends in the car were taken to the Pailles police station. The young entrepreneur lodged a complaint of corruption against the police officer. In the early hours of Monday morning, July 10, he explained that the policeman had placed him in an office and informed him that he was under arrest. The officer then informed him of his constitutional rights.
At one point, the officer asked him for his cell phone, saying, “koz parol sinon to pe ale dormi”. The officer then unlocked his phone by placing it in front of his face for facial recognition. He did this a second time when he saw that the Juice application had been authorized. At the same time, he informed the offender that he would be taking a fine of Rs 10,000, so that he would not report this case of attempted murder. That he would only be caught for traffic offences. However, this money was not withdrawn from an ATM.
Indeed, after regaining possession of his phone, he noticed that there had been a cardless transaction for the sum of Rs 10,000. He also noted that the code obtained had been erased. The policeman had declared the code on a piece of paper before tearing it up and putting it in his pocket. Shortly before 11 p.m. on Sunday July 9, this policeman had an entry in the Diary Book concerning the young entrepreneur for five offences. There was no entry in the Occurrence Book for an assassination attempt.
CID investigators have the difficult task of proving who is telling the truth between this offender and this police officer. The latter, who has been absent from work on several occasions, had not reported to the Pailles police station since the incident.
