Duo to face retrial for murder of Mahaica rice farmer

Mar 15, 2014 News

A deadlock on the part of the jury has resulted in the High Court retrial of Shawn Thom and Orin David called ‘Plait Hair or Malik’, who were both facing the court for the August, 2010 murder of Mahaica rice farmer, Lakhram Bishundial.

The deceased, Lakhram Bishundial

After a lengthy summing up of the trial by Georgetown Supreme Court Judge, Franklyn Holder yesterday, the mixed twelve member jury retired to deliberate the outcome of the case. The accused frequently gave each other nervous glances as they sat in the docks awaiting the jury’s decision.
The panel returned to the courtroom almost two hours later and the foreman quietly informed the court that the jurors were undecided on the verdict. “Six jurors found the defendants guilty of the crime while the remainder found them not guilty.”
As such, the Judge announced that the men would be escorted back to Georgetown prisons to await a retrial at the next session of the Demerara Criminal Assizes.
On August 20, 2010 at Hope, East Coast Demerara, Lakhram Bishundial was shot at Hope Turn, East Coast Demerara, as he was on his way to a nearby Ashram to make preparations for his younger brother’s wedding.
His brother, Totaram had left his home in De Hoop Mahaica for Georgetown earlier that day. He went to do some last minute shopping for his wedding, which was scheduled for the upcoming weekend. He was accompanied by a female relative. Totaram Bishundial withdrew $ 500,000 from a city bank and was returning home to Mahaica when he met his brother at Hope, East Coast Demerara. The siblings had parked their vehicles and began to chat, when a gunman approached them and demanded money. The suspect pointed the gun at the younger Bishundial but his brother interjected and was shot by the robber instead. The assailant and another man escaped on a motorcycle.
Bishundial was rushed to the St Joseph’s Mercy hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. A post mortem exercise conducted on the victim’s remains revealed that he died as a result of a perforated liver and spleen due to gunshot injuries.