The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Shalimar Ali-Hack has discontinued the charge of unlawfully exciting racial hostility or ill-will against lawyer Nirvan Singh which was brought against him by policewoman Shawnette Bollers on March 20, 2022.
No reason was given for her decision. However, this publication understands that pursuant to Article 187 of the Constitution, the DPP is empowered to do the following:
1. “To institute and undertake criminal proceedings against any person before any court, other than a court-martial, in respect of any offence against the law of Guyana;
2. To take over and continue any such criminal proceedings that may have been instituted by any other person or authority; and
3. To discontinue at any stage before judgment is delivered any such criminal proceedings instituted or undertaken by him or any other person or authority.”
Bollers once performed security duties at the home of the young lawyer’s father, former Chancellor of the Judiciary Justice Carl Singh.
The policewoman had filed a $150 million suit against Singh. Bollers, in legal documents, deposed that on March 20, she was performing duties at Justice Singh’s Middle and Cummings Streets, Georgetown home when his son approached her and chased her out of the property, forcing her to abandon her post and duties.
In chasing her, the policewoman complained that the lawyer spoke to her in an “aggressive and loud manner” while hurling several racist remarks at her.
She said the tirade lasted for 14 minutes after which she fled the scene and walked a couple of miles to another location in Georgetown in the dark of night alone.
She argued that the words uttered by attorney Singh in their natural and ordinary meaning were understood to mean that she was not a human being and by extension not worthy of recognition in her humanity or human dignity; was not a human being but rather an animal; that her race was not worthy of respect; that her race is synonymous with or akin to monkeys of the black skin colour; that she is not professional and not an individual worthy of respect, visibility, and human identity.
As a result of the publication of the slanderous statements, Bollers submitted that her reputation has been subjected to ridicule and lowered in the estimation of right-thinking persons in society.
Singh, in a letter to the editor, has since denied the allegations.
“I, therefore, wish to say that the racist conduct, of which I am accused, in no way reflects my philosophy or personal values. More importantly, it would be an indictment on my parents and elders, given their efforts to ensure that my upbringing would produce in me a person of the highest moral, ethical, and professional conduct,” the young lawyer had noted.
