Police decline to read charge to accused killer driver

Aug 01, 2009 News

…accused remains in police custody

The accused being lifted out of the court yard.

Just hours after being involved in a deadly motor vehicle accident that claimed the lives of three Covent Garden residents, police took the driver of the vehicle, Farood Mohamed, 23, to court.
However, the charge of causing death by dangerous driving could not be read to the accused, when he appeared before Acting Chief Magistrate, Melissa Robertson, at the Georgetown Magistrates Court.
Mohamed’s lawyer, Sase Gunraj, made an application for the matter to be held down, since the accused kept lapsing in and out of consciousness.
The lawyer made an application for the court to release him into the custody of the hospital “in all fairness of his condition”.
However, the prosecution argued that if the charge cannot be read to the accused then he would have to remain in police custody. The Acting Chief Magistrate concurred. The matter was adjourned to August 3.
The lawyer argued that the police did not have the medical resources to treat the accused, contending that to his knowledge, all the police had at their disposal was a veterinary officer.
But the prosecutor informed the court that the police have three qualified medical officers.
Investigations are still ongoing into the fatal accident which occurred around 01:15h hrs yesterday at the Providence Public Road, East Bank Demerara.
The accident claimed that lives of Richard Chinian, 23, of Lot 55 First Street Covent Garden, East Bank Demerara; Asheeki Asgar Ally, 19, of Lot 54, First Street Covent Gardens; and James Sookdeo, 23 of Lot 50 Covent Garden.
Farood Mohamed, the driver of the vehicle received a broken left leg and a number of lacerations about the body.
Investigations revealed that the three men were in a motor car proceeding along the roadway when the driver lost control of the vehicle and crashed into the concrete base of a light pole.