Antoine Chetty?s revelations are getting more appalling by the day. After involving former police chief Dayal in the crime network, he has now denounced members of the land fraud squad as Deelchand?s accomplices.

The country is impatiently waiting for the questioning of former police chief Raj Dayal to begin. After Antoine Chetty?s allegations that Raj Dayal met notary Vinay Deelchand, Moonsamy Mooraghen and Chetty himself at the SMF quarters in October 1994 to set a trap for Satish Nundlall, Mooraghen?s former partner in Best Land Co Ltd, it has not been possible to hear Raj Dayal?s defense on the issue.

According to Antoine Chetty, Raj Dayal was present when the plot was hatched to place heroin at Satish Nundlall?s house and report it to the police so that he would be arrested. Nundlall was apparently getting in the way of notary Deelchand.

Siven Benaya, a notorious repeat offender, has since then confessed to the Anti-drug and Smuggling Unit (ADSU) that he was the one who hid the heroin on Nundlall?s premises. He was later arrested in an abandoned house in Belle-Rose in possession of heroin and declared to the police that Nundlall was his supplier.

Fate has had it that the former police chief was last week summoned in court to answer the charge of giving false evidence to the Sik Yuen commission of inquiry on the allocation of police contracts. This issue has helped to further darken the former police commissioner?s image, the more so as he did not appear in court.

It is thus even harder to understand why the ADSU is still waiting to question him? This is a legitimate question since the matter has been pending for more than a week and nothing has happened so far.

Raj Dayal is not the only police officer mentioned in Antoine Chetty?s revelations. Deelchand?s former driver has explicitly named a policeman in post as a gang accomplice in the land frauds. Some lawyers have long suspected the police Land Fraud Squad (LFS). According to them, there was no doubt that some of its members must be accomplices in frauds since so few cases were solved. This suspicion has given more strength to Antoine Chetty?s naming of one member of the squad as an accomplice in an alleged trap set up by Deelchand.

Chetty has also made it clear that his former boss had close relations with some 12 members of the squad. He has even said he could identify them, if necessary. One of the ways used by those squad members to collude with the ?defaulters? was to intimidate victims when the latter came up to file a complaint, Chetty?s lawyer, Samad Golamaully explains : ?As most of the time, the alleged victims did not have the financial means to go to Court, there were no judicial proceedings? .

Members of the PLFS, however, deny having resorted to any intimidation. To explain why so many complaints have not been genuinely investigated, one member says: ?Very often, the notary himself is a victim. Against whom will we go into action? He has only signed documents and the persons concerned by the fraud have shown false identity cards. If someone uses an ID with your name and his photo on it to sell your plot of land, it is very hard to find the real swindler.?

<B>Squad member arrested</B>

However, some lawyers may soon make the life of some PLFS members a misery. They consider that it is the latters? job to find swindlers and that they could have done so if they had really wanted to. As a result, they are working on a case against the LFS with some hundred complaints. Moreover, the ?accused? squad member was arrested yesterday and Chetty may elaborate on the LFS.

The country is becoming even more stunned as Chetty?s almost daily revelations involve the most important and trusted institutions. Even the prime minister has expressed his amazement at all these allegations. It is unbelievable that such crimes could have been committed with impunity for so many years.Horrifying signs of the times? Or should we at least feel positive that they are being made public? The latter might mean that the institutions are doing their job- fighting crime and corruption. We can only hope this is the case?