Gold thief to stand trial for killing co-worker

May 24, 2017 Court Stories, Features / Columnists, News

Neville Chandrawattie, the suspected mastermind behind a $93M staged robbery at the El Dorado Gold Trading Company in 2013, has been committed to stand trial at the High Court for the murder of his co-worker, Darran Chanmangra,

MURDER ACCUSED: Neville Chandrawattie

which occurred on April 21, 2007 at Port Kaituma.
Yesterday, a preliminary inquiry into the offence concluded before City Magistrate Judy Latchman during which the Magistrate ruled that a prima facie case had been made out against the murder accused at the close of the prosecution’s case presented by Attorney-at-Law Glen Hanoman.
Chandrawattie of Sparta, Essequibo, who is being represented by Attorney Compton Richards, will go before a judge and jury at the next practicable sitting of the Demerara Assizes.
According to reports, during the robbery Chanmangra, a gold and diamond dealer, was shot and killed.
Chandrawattie was reportedly the General Manager (GM) of the Port Kaituma Region One Office of El Dorado Trading, responsible for the purchase of gold from miners.
It was reported that the GM and other workers plotted to stage the robbery.
During the ordeal, Chandrawattie and some other workers were tied up and badly beaten. The men, leaving the GM tied up, reportedly took the gold and cash and headed back to Charity on the Essequibo Coast.
Detectives from Georgetown were called in to probe. It was reported that Chandrawattie hatched the plot after he misused some of the monies entrusted to him by the company. It was during the police investigation that the mastermind cracked under pressure.
He reportedly confessed to planning the heist and gave detectives a detailed account of the plot, including the names of all the parties involved.
In May 2016, Chandrawattie and his accomplice, Anil Dairam, of Blairmont, Berbice, pleaded guilty to stealing raw gold valued at $22M and $71M before Magistrate Alex Moore in the Matthew’s Ridge Magistrate’s Court.
The charges were in relation the $93M gold heist.
Chandrawattie was jailed for five years while Dairam was sent to prison for four years.
The murder accused was charged in 2014 for the capital offence.
He had spent 13 months on remand for the murder before he was granted bail in the sum of $750,000 by a Magistrate sitting in the Matthew’s Ridge Magistrate’s Courts.
However, the prosecutor at that time sought the intervention of former Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). They both ordered that the decision be ignored since a Magistrate has no authority to grant bail to a murder accused.
That Magistrate subsequently recused himself from the matter and it was transferred before City Magistrate Judy Latchman.

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