After more than a year on the run, Deonarine Mohammed was yesterday charged with the murder of his mother, whom he is accused of dousing in gasoline and setting on fire.
Mohammed, Stabroek was told, was arraigned on the capital charge in an East Coast Demerara Magistrate’s Court and was remanded to prison. He is accused of murdering his mother, Gaitree Dhanraj, who was set on fire at her Enmore North, East Coast Demerara home.
The charge was recommended based on the advice of murder the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
Crime Chief Seelall Persaud said yesterday that Mohammed was arrested last weekend, after being on the run since the April 23, 2010 incident occurred.
Dhanraj succumbed to burns eight days after she was set alight, shortly after Mohammed had an argument with her husband (his father) Husman Mohammed. Ousman, who also sustained burns during the incident, had recalled that on the night of April 23, his son showed up at the house in a drunken state and asked for food. He said an argument erupted between them and his son became enraged when he told him that he needed to find a job. It was at that point the man recalled that Mohammed “tek de gas and fling it by where she [Dhanraj] been and when he fling it on she some drop on de floor and some splash up on me.” After throwing the gasoline, the man stated that Mohammed struck a match and flung it in his mother’s direction. Flames immediately covered the woman and it was at this point that he escaped.
In addition to the injuries sustained by the couple—which proved fatal in Dhanraj’s case—the two-storey wooden and concrete house was destroyed by the fire.
