DEFENCE Counsel Vic Puran yesterday claimed that documentation in the filing was flawed and pressed for the abduction charge against city businessman Reeaz Khan to be dismissed.
Khan, 36, of Lot 51 Eccles, East Bank Demerara and proprietor of Reeaz Trading Enterprise, at Lot 37 Camp Street, Georgetown, is accused, in the privately-laid indictable charge, of unlawfully taking the unmarried 13-year-old girl with whom he has a controversial sexual relationship, against her will, out of the possession and without the consent of her mother, last May 21.
He, in turn, has instituted a perjury charge against the teen's mother, Bibi Shameeza Hamid.
Addressing Senior Magistrate Melissa Robertson-Ogle, at Wales Magistrate Court, West Bank Demerara, Puran said the information, purportedly sworn to in the case, is tainted with illegality, in that it falsely states that the swearing took place at Wales Court on a day when the same magistrate did not sit there.
In another submission, the lawyer said the charge is contrary to Section 89 of the Criminal Law Offences Act, Chapter 8:01 and, while all indictable matters must initially evoke the jurisdiction of the High Court, the allegation was made in the summary jurisdiction within the West Demerara Magisterial District where there is no judge and jury.
Puran also contended that the charge is, in substance, a complaint without oath, even though it purports to have been made upon one.
Defence Counsel submitted, too, that the charge is bad in law and cannot be maintained or amended.
He said the particulars of offence allege that the teenager was taken at Wales and at Lot 38 South Section Canal Number Two, which are different places on West Bank Demerara.
Mr Nigel Niles, who held the brief for other-attorney-at-law Mr Nigel Hughes, said the latter would reply on July 23.
He explained that statements for the additional abduction charges alluded to on the last occasion have not yet been completed.
Khan is on $100,000 cash bail and the perjury case against Hamid will be called in Georgetown on Monday, July 19.