The Major Crime Investigation Team (MCIT) faces one more accusation. Thierry Michaud, 28, suspected of having swindled Rs 10,000 from an old lady, was arrested by the MCIT on Friday. Soon after, he was in hospital with a broken leg and several face and body wounds. He alleges that he was taken to an abandoned house in Trianon, beaten and tortured by MCIT officers. An enquiry has been opened to shed some light on these new allegations against this police division, headed by police superintendent (SP) Prem Raddhoa and subject of much criticism lately.

The suspect made an entry in the police diary book asking to be examined by a doctor as he was feeling unwell. He also asked that his lawyer, Dick Ng Sui Wa, be informed each time he was taken out of his cell to be questioned by SP Raddhoa’s team. His lawyer made a request for him to be taken to hospital and examined by both a public and a private doctor. So after Dr Peerally examined the patient, assisted by private doctor Ramesh Modun, neurologist, he recommended that Thierry Michaud be admitted to hospital.

<B>Nothing done since Ramlogun </B>

Even though his father declared he did not want to clear his son, he insisted that the police do not have the right to behave that way. If his son had to be punished for his illegal action, he did not want his son be the next Rajesh Ramlogun. He intends to sue the State and the commissioner of police. Michaud’s lawyer claims that “nothing has been done since the Ramlogun case” to change the situation and that the country’s reputation is at stake.

Thierry Michaud was arrested after he tried to swindle Rs 10,000 from an old lady at the Mauritius Commercial Bank. He told her she had won Rs 250,000 in the Lottery for Disabled Persons but that she first needed to give him Rs 10,000. After he accompanied her to withdraw the money from her account, he snatched the Rs 10,000 from her and ran away. But as she cried for help, people on the street managed to stop the suspect and kept him on the ground. They called the police… and this is where the suspect asserts his ordeal started.