A police inspector is on forced leave and another officer is expected to be arraigned tomorrow on suspicions that they tampered with evidence in the shooting case involving the Home Affairs Minister’s driver Paul Sheehan.

The inspector, who is close to Mr Sheehan, was placed on police bail and forced to go out on leave yesterday after being interrogated intensively in relation to his suspected involvement in the disappearance of bullet casings from the site where Mr Sheehan allegedly shot at an unarmed man in Tal-Qroqq two weeks ago.

He is also suspected to have approached two witnesses, a mother and her daughter, who filmed the incident and asked them for the footage. However, the women have been unable to make a positive identification and in a police line-up, picked up both him and another man who has nothing to do with the incident.

The disappearance of the casings and the approach on the witnesses was revealed by The Sunday Times of Malta.

Separately, however, a police sergeant form the Msida Police station is under arrest and expected to be charged tomorrow, in connection with the deletion of details from the arrest report of the man Mr Sheehan shot at, Stephen Morrison Smith.

Mr Smith was arrested after the collision with  the ministerial car Mr Sheehan was responsible for, and on suspicion of driving under the influence.

MaltaToday reported last Sunday that Mr Smith’s breathalyser test findings and details of the incident had been deleted from the police’s cases database.

Mr Smith, who originally refused to take a breathalyser test, was eventually found to be three times over the legal limit when he was finally breathalysed, before inquiring Magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras.

All of this information was deleted from the system. However, it has since been recovered.

The arraignment will be the second, after that of Mr Sheehan, 40, who last week was charged with attempted murder for allegedly shooting twice at the Vauxhall Insignia being driven by Mr Smith, 30.

The incident was ostensibly sparked by a traffic accident. Mr Smith supposedly clipped the mirror of the ministerial Mercedez Benz and drove off.

The two stopped in Tal Qroqq and Mr Sheehan fired two shots at Mr Smith’s car when he took off, spooked by the fact that the minister's driver – who is a police officer – emerged from his vehicle wielding a gun.

The chase eventually ended in the tunnels underneath the skate park in Msida when Mr Sheehan managed to overtake the Vauxhall and pulled a brake, blocking its path.