A man was yesterday granted $500,000 bail after he appeared before Magistrate Leslie Sobers on causing death by dangerous driving and four other traffic charges.
It is alleged that on January 27, on the Friendship Public Road, East Bank Demerara, Raymond Persaud, 32, of 55 Austin Street, Kitty, drove motor car PNN 8761 in a manner dangerous to the public and caused the death of Bissoondial Nihal.
Persaud was also charged with being an unlicensed driver after he failed to produce his driver’s licence at the request of a police rank; driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI) after he failed a breathalyser test reading 177 micrograms (mg) and breaching his insurance.
In petitioning the Providence court for bail, his attorney Mark Waldron submitted that Persaud’s driver’s licence was later lodged at the Grove Police Station. He also said that his client had no previous or pending matters before the court. Waldron said that Persaud was the principal of an aeronautical school at Ogle. Questioned by the magistrate, Persaud gave the name of the school as the Art Williams and Harry Wendt school. He explained that he also travels to Trinidad to give lectures.
The prosecution had no objections to bail but requested that Persaud lodge his passport and other travel documents with police.
After taking all the factors into consideration, the magistrate granted the prosecution’s request and granted Persaud his pre-trial liberty.
Persaud was ordered to appear in court on March 5 for the filing of statements.
Relatives say that 57-year-old Nihal, the tractor’s driver, and six of his workers were making their way from Nihal’s home at 17 Busby Dam, Craig, EBD, to his farm in Garden of Eden, EBD, when a driver slammed his Toyota Premio into the back of the trailer, around 7 am.
