Years Later, BPS Lose Appeal on Dr Mahesh Reddy’s Arrest

Bermuda’s Court of Appeal has upheld the ruling by judicial review that ruled that police acted unlawfully when they arrested Dr Mahesh Reddy and searched his home.

In their ruling, the Court of Appeal upheld the Supreme Court decision saying the police acted “unreasonably”.

Dr Reddy’s 2017 victory in the Supreme Court against police on the early morning arrest was supported in the judgment handed down, which dismissed the appeal launched by the Bermuda Police Service against an earlier ruling in Dr Reddy’s favour.

Ultimately, the Court of Appeal upheld the Supreme Court decision.

The judgment, issued last Friday, said “the power to arrest does not arise simply because the police wished to be able to carry out a search”.

Dr Reddy, the Medical Director at Bermuda Healthcare Services was arrested back in May 2016 as part of the ongoing police investigation into former Premier Dr Ewart Brown and his two medical practices, which offer diagnostic imaging scans.

Both Dr Brown and Dr Reddy denied allegations that they were involved in medical fraud by ordering expensive patient scans unnecessarily.

Bermuda Healthcare Services was also raided by police in February 2017. Another raid was carried out at the Brown-Darrell Clinic in Smith’s Parish.

Officers also seized the medical records of several patients, which sparked another lawsuit by Dr Brown’s patients.

Police maintained the raid was part of “a large-scale fraud and corruption inquiry, which commenced in 2012” and that they were investigating allegations of money laundering.

To this day, no formal charges have been laid.

The initial Supreme Court ruling was handed down by former Chief Justice Ian Kawaley.

Dr Reddy was arrested under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act.

But Justice Kawaley ruled that police made a “fatal failure to consider crucially relevant matters” in this case.

Ultimately, he quashed Dr Reddy’s arrest and bail, saying the search was unlawful. Justice Kawaley also ordered police to return the items seized.

Police appealed the ruling handed down in 2017 and Dr Brown subsequently launched his own Supreme Court action against the Attorney General in December 2019, listing his two clinics as the complainants.