Extradition of Guyanese National Balkumar Singh
Guyanese national Mr Balkumar Singh was extradited to the United States of America early this morning to face charges for murder in the second degree, assault in the first degree, reckless endangerment and related offenses.
Sgt. Herman Narace of local Interpol spearheaded a party of Police Officers from the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service in this prisoner removal exercise and handed over Singh to US Marshals at the Piarco International Airport, departing at 8.45am this morning. Singh is wanted for the 1999 murder of Abzal Khan and assault of Puran Mohammed outside the Masonic Temple in Hicksville, New York.
Singh was arrested on a Provisional Arrest Warrant and upon appearing before the Chief Magistrate Ms Marcia Ayers-Caesar at the POS Eight Magistrate’s Court, consented to being extradited to the USA without proceedings before the Magistrate pursuant to section 11(1) of the Extradition Act, which resulted in the Honourable Attorney General Garvin Nicholas signing the Warrant of Committal on July 24th 2015, and the Warrant for Return (By Consent) on July 29th, 2015.
Singh was represented in the courts by Attorney at Law Abigail Roach-Thomas whilst Attorneys at Law Vashist Maharaj, Chris Selochan, Netram Kowlessar- Head of the Central Authority Unit and Kylene Deosingh, represented the requesting state, the USA.
This stands as another achievement for the Attorney General and the Central Authority in the co-ordination of efforts with their international counterparts in the fight against crime. The Attorney General is committed to working with law enforcement agencies in the Caribbean and other international bodies to confront and fight the scourge of crime.
The Central Authority has been very successful in extraditing a number of prominent wanted persons in recent times including:
1. Shazam Meighoo- Extradited to the United States of America on the 9th January 2015 to face charges of murder and other related offences.
2. Jason Anthony Nelson- Extradited to the United Kingdom on 2nd April, 2015 to face charges of murder and other related offences.
3. Kelvon Zaine Khan- Extradited to the United States of America on 10th April, 2015 to face charges of sexual offences.
4. Desmond Pavy- Extradited to St Vincent and the Grenadines on the 13th May 2015 to complete serving his jail term for drug trafficking offences.
5. Ravindranath Roopnarine- Extradited to the United States of America on 22nd May 2015 to face charges of money laundering and fraud offences.
6. Edmund Quincy Muntslag- Extradited to the United States of America on 6th August, 2015 to face charges for narcotics trafficking and related offences.
Also, Amoa Howe a TT national was extradited to Trinidad and Tobago on 10th May 2015 to face charges of firearm and ammunition offences following a request made by the Central Authority to the United Kingdom.
—
Dated:FRIDAY 14TH AUGUST, 2015.
MINISTRY OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
REPUBLIC OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO