Gya: Gajraj linked to cultured bandit Chowtie

The firearm licence issued to dead bandit Gopaul 'Gewan' Chowtie in February last year was approved by Home Affairs Minister Ronald Gajraj and signed by then acting police commissioner Floyd McDonald. (See copy of document on page 3.)

And the PPP/C confirmed yesterday that Chowtie was a member of the party but said there was a "mutual separation" in 1989. Chowtie died on Monday following an armed confrontation with police during a robbery on Sunday night at Success, East Coast Demerara.

Stabroek News has seen a document signed by Gajraj and McDonald dated February 15, 2003 licensing businessman/farmer Gopaul Chowtie to use a .22, .25 or .32 pistol/revolver and a 12- 16- or 20-gauge shotgun.

The document said "nothing adverse is known of him", and noted that Khemraj Ramjattan, attorney-at-law and Seetal Persaud, Commissioner of Oaths to Affidavits and Justice of the Peace recommended Chowtie. An application for a gun licence dated late 1999 and endorsed by Ramjattan was found among some documents in an old house on what was left of Chowtie's farm, along with a business card bearing Ramjattan's contact information.

The PPP/C's confirmation that Chowtie was a former party member was in response to a statement made by the PNCR at a press briefing yesterday, that the former treason accused had received military and overseas training on a PPP/C scholarship, and was a well-known PPP/C activist in Essequibo.

If Chowtie had had a mutual separation with the party in 1989, then why did the Home Affairs Minister Ronald Gajraj and a whole bunch of PNCR big-wigs sign off on a letter endorsing him for a gun license in 2003? Surely by then, there was a whole lot of adverse information available concerning Chowtie? So, when will the government begin the investigation into Gajraj and the death squads?