Between yet another damning report pointing once again to a criminal waste of public funds and the re-opening of parliament that has turned into a kess savon for propaganda, an important piece of news has jostled its way into the headlines: all the charges against lawyer Akil Bissessur have been struck out. That's it! No case to answer!
Yet, not so long ago, Akil Bissessur and his hapless companion were branded by the police and the prime minister, Pravind Jugnauth, as big drug traffickers involved in, or perhaps heading, a big Mafia network. Conflating his role with that of the police commissioner as often happens in a police state, Pravind Jugnauth had talked about how his "radar" had been following Akil Bissessur and how the police nabbed him with his hand in the cookie jar. He tried and sentenced him in the National Assembly and at every socio cultural meeting where he was invited. He missed no opportunity to brandish a photo of Akil Bissessur with opposition politicians to try and claim that they were all implicated in the drug business he is supposedly fighting.
At the last parliamentary session on Tuesday, while replying to the opposition's attack about Franklin and his photos with Geanchand Dewdanee - a guy accused of huge drug trafficking in gas cylinders - inside the National Assembly on Budget Day, he expressed regret that he did not have that photo he had brandished - alluding to Bissessur's photo with former Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam - to prove his point. Now, Bissessur has just been freed by a court of law!
He has braved detention - 17 days - has seen his companion Doomila Moheeputh imprisoned - 18 days - and they have both had their most intimate moments stolen by those who were supposed to protect them and splashed all over social media by grinning cops for whom that must have been the highest exciting moment in their dull lives. We all saw Doomila ever since walking with her head down as if she was the one to blame. In fact, it is our rogue policemen and women who should be hanging their heads in shame.
Worse, Doomila's house was smashed and reduced to a construction site by The Special Striking Team. Her mother, who was already struggling with ill-health, must still be dealing with the consequences of the trauma she has been through.
All this for us to find out that the first mission of the newly-formed Special Striking Team was not exactly a resounding success after all the congratulatory messages they received from the police spokesperson and the prime minister? That the primary mission of the SST was not to nab drug dealers after all but to inflict maximum punishment on political opponents to intimidate them and send a loud and clear message to the others? All this to create the atmosphere of fear that has overwhelmed opponents, journalists and fate at any time? These are the methods of goons not of respectable policemen and women and the government they take orders from!
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So now what? What happened to the irrefutable proof that was in Akil's overnight bag that was shown to the whole world? Where is the drug network that the radar was following? Where are the other members of this network? An even more worrying question is: where did the drugs supposedly seized at Doomila's place come from?
Instead of answers to these questions, expect more propaganda about kas lerin mafia. Expect more attacks on Magistrate Vidya Mungroo-Jugurnath because she dared apply the law. Watch her competence crumble before your very eyes. Look out for all the synonyms of 'bankal' as they will compete with one another to qualify her judgement. In a nutshell, expect goons to act as goons.
