Girls held for father's murder return to Canada after DPP terminates charges

Girls held for father’s murder return to Canada after DPP terminates charges

Jun 05, 2018 News

Attorney–at–law, Charrandass Persaud

The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has clarified that the matter against two Canadian girls, who were held for the murder of their 64-year-old father, Roger Manikam, in April 2016, has been nolle prosequi (terminated) by the DPP.
Reports indicated that the body of Manikam, a pensioner, was found on April 3, 2016, in a drain several blocks away from his Lot 237 Section B, Non-Pareil, East Coast Demerara home.
There was a chop wound at the back of the man’s head. It initially appeared as if the elderly man was the victim of an accident. However, police investigators later uncovered evidence which suggested that 19-year-old Nalini Manikam and her sister played a role in their father’s demise.
The sisters reportedly lured their father into the kitchen of the home where he was chopped with an axe. The girl’s had reportedly sought the help of Veeran Dias Lall – the elder sister’s boyfriend.
He aided with wrapping their father’s body in plastic. The body was then allegedly transported by Devon Brown, a taxi driver and a friend of Lall, to the roadside where it was dumped. A post mortem examination performed on the pensioner revealed that he died as a result of brain haemorrhage due to blunt trauma to the head.
It was recently reported that the two girls had moved back to Canada following negotiations with the State. However, officials attached to the DPP’s Chambers said yesterday that the matter against the girls was terminated by the State after Lall pleaded guilty to the unlawful killing of the elderly Manikam.
Lall had admitted that on April 2, 2016, he killed the father of his girlfriend — Nalini Manikam. He was sentenced to 16 years in jail after he pleaded guilty to manslaughter before Justice Sandil Kissoon, earlier in the year.
His accomplice Devon Brown, pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact. He was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment.
However, Brown was released after the court took into consideration that he spent two years on remand pending trial. Two years is the maximum penalty that could have been imposed on Brown for the offence.
As such, the DPP said that the charges against the two teenage girls, who are both Canadians, were dismissed.
“It is simply based on the fact the two persons accepted responsibility for the crime….no other reason… that the girls were released,” an official attached to the DPP chambers stated yesterday.
Meanwhile, Attorney–at–law, Charrandass Persaud, who represented the two girls throughout the proceedings, confirmed that the girls had returned to Canada.
Persaud explained that the Canadian authorities took an interest in the case from the inception since citizens of their country were involved. The Lawyer clarified that the older sister (Nalini) was born in Canada and the other sister is a naturalised citizen.
Persaud confirmed further that neither of his clients was given a deal by the State. The lawyer disclosed too that the request for a plea bargain was turned down by the State.
The State only decided to nolle prosequi the matter against his clients after the men appeared at the High Court and pleaded guilty to the indictments in relation to the matter. He said that it was after that the girls were released to the Canadian authorities and their relatives.

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