However, 72 hours, the legal period during which the police are allowed to have him in their custody without instituting charges ended yesterday and Sharma’s attorney Nigel Hughes told this newspaper on Saturday that if the police failed to institute a charge within that time he would be moving to the court today to secure his client’s release.
This newspaper learnt from a reliable source that Sharma remains hospitalized in the Caribbean Heart Institute. He was rushed there last Thursday after he collapsed at the Brickdam Police Station while being questioned in relation to allegations that he sexually abused a 13-year-old girl and her sisters.
The television personality and leader of the Justice For All party was under police guard.
“We learnt this [yesterday] morning that he will be appearing at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court to answer to charges,” a source related, “but we do not know how many charges and we do not know what he will be charged with… we’re just going to have to wait and see.”
The number of accusations of sexual assault which have been levelled against Sharma increased on Saturday when three other young women made allegations of their own to authorities, among them being a 12-year-old girl. The young women are part of a single family and are related to the 13 year-old who triggered a police investigation last week after she alleged that Sharma had assaulted her and her sisters over a period of time.
Two of the young women are sisters of the 13-year-old and another is their 12-year-old cousin. One of the sisters, aged 21 years, has alleged that the local broadcaster fathered a child with her and she has also claimed knowledge of the abuse of her younger sisters. The other sister, an 18-year-old, and the 12-year-old also gave a detailed account of the alleged assault to the authorities and they made other claims against Sharma.
Previously, the two sisters had denied their younger sister’s allegations in sworn affidavits, and both said then that Sharma had never abused them. But their stories have changed and in addition, a 12-year-old cousin has come forward with similar allegations. The 13-year-old girl, who was in the custody of a relative under the supervision of the Child Protection and Childcare agency, was removed from the relative’s home and taken into custody by the agency.
Police are still seeking Primotie Danraj, the mother of the girls. The authorities gave the woman’s last known address as 43 Robb Street, Lacytown, Georgetown, which is Sharma’s residence.
