Latest update November 26th, 2024 1:00 AM
Murder of elderly woman…Four accused to know fate today
The fate of the four men who are on trial for the murder of an elderly Canal Number Two, West Bank Demerara woman,
Murdered: ‘Budhia’
will be determined today after Justice Navindra Singh sums up the evidence of the matter, which was presented before the court.
The accused, all residents of Sea Dam Herstelling, East Bank Demerara, are on trial at the High Court before Justice Singh and a mixed twelve-member jury for the murder of 68-year-old Budhia also called ‘Ronui.
They are being represented by Attorneys-at-Law Sonia Parag and Raymond Alli.
Today, Justice Singh is expected to sum up the evidence against Nigel Sookram, Steve Sookdeo called ‘Coolie Boy’, Roy Anthony Sewnarine and Vishal Seecharan called “Markie,” who are accused of killing the elderly women at her home in Conservancy Dam at Canal Number Two, West Bank Demerara (WBD) during a robbery.
The woman was at the time sharing the home with her daughter and thirteen year-old granddaughter, both of whom were assaulted and tortured in the process.
In her opening address to the court, State Prosecutor Judith Gildharie-Mursalin disclosed that a post mortem examination which was later conducted on the body of the elderly woman, determined that she died of asphyxia due to manual strangulation.
Yesterday, while leading their defence, all four men told the court that they were beaten by the police after they were arrested for the crime.
The men claimed that they were arrested and taken to various police stations, where they were beaten, threatened and coerced into signing statements pertaining to the matter.
However, based on the evidence presented before the court, one of the accused (Sookdeo) had admitted to committing the crime in his caution statement. In the statement, Sookdeo detailed that he, “Nigel, Markie and Roy,” had planned and carried out the robbery which took place on October 20, 2008.
Sookdeo had told police investigators that he and his colleagues had hired a car at Herstelling, East Bank Demerara and travelled to Canal Number Two, West Bank Demerara, where they broke into the house and “tied up the old lady” and other occupants of the one-flat building before robbing them of cash and jewellery.
In addition, the victim’s daughter, Basmattie Rampersaud recalled the night of the incident. She told the court that thieves broke into her house and made off with more than a million dollars in cash and jewellery.
She said that the bandits bound the occupants of the house, all females, including her elderly mother, using duct tape. The woman said that the perpetrators not only robbed and terrorised her elderly mother, but that she was killed in the process.
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