Three men, including a 15-year-old, appeared at the Wales Magistrate’s Court yesterday charged with the murder of a Canal Number Two grandmother, who asphyxiated when she was gagged during a robbery.
Nigel Sookram, 27, of Berbice; Steve Sookdeo, 21, a mason of Herstelling, and the teenager, who is also a mason, were not required to plead to the capital offence of murder and were remanded to prison by Magistrate Ann McLennan. It is alleged that between October 19 and October 20 last year, at Conservancy Dam, Canal Number Two, West Bank Demerara, the trio murdered Budhia called ‘Rhonie.’
Reports are that the three individuals were caught last week when they reportedly returned to the area. Budhia of Conversancy Dam died during a robbery, which occurred on October 20, last year at her home. The elderly woman was asphyxiated, a post-mortem examination had revealed.
In the early hours of October 20, bandits, one armed with a gun and another with a knife, had struck at the home and tied up the three female occupants; Budhia, her daughter Basmattie Rampersaud and Rampersaud’s daughter, Shivanie.
The bandits had terrorized the women for about an hour before escaping with more than $1 million in cash and jewellery. Budhia had been tied up and gagged and was heard gasping before she went silent. Attorney-at-law Mohamed Zafar entered an appearance for Sookram. In his submissions, he told the court that his client was “brutalised” by the police and he was beaten “mercilessly” at the La Grange and Leonora police stations as well as at Eve Leary.
Sookram showed the court scratches at the side of his lower chest and said that he was also choked. “They strangle me,” he said, adding that at Eve Leary “police get two Rasta man strangling me”.
He alleged that a plastic bag was placed over his head and he was beaten. “Ma heart paining me bad, mam,” he stated. The two other accused remained silent throughout the proceedings.
As they were being led away from the court, Sookram shouted repeatedly that he was innocent and stated that a “drugs man” had committed the act but the police had released the man.
He continued shouting in his cell while relatives gathered at the police station. The trio will return to the Wales Magistrate’s Court on June 22 for report.