Satesh Singh, one of the two men on trial for a fatal beating, was found not guilty yesterday, while his co-accused Parsram Lalchand will return to prison to await a re-trial in the High Court.
Singh was found not guilty by the unanimous verdict of a 12-member jury, which was hung on the question of Lalchand’s guilt. He will have to wait for a re-trial at the next Demerara Criminal Assizes.
Singh and Lalchand were represented by attorney Hukumchand and Moses Nagamootoo, while the state’s case was presented by Konyo Thompson and Dhanika Singh. Justice Navindra Singh presided over the trial.
The state’s case was that the two men along with Vishal Singh, Babzie Singh, called ‘Solex,’ and Vishnu Singh, murdered Niranjan on July 29, 2008.
Vishal, Vishnu and Babzie Singh were sentenced to 15 years in prison two weeks ago after they pleaded guilty to manslaughter, while another co-accused, Akash Singh, was freed after the prosecution withdrew the murder charge against him.
Niranjan’s son-in-law, Asraf Khan, had identified the six accused in the trial as the men who beat his father-in-law during an argument over a bicycle. The men had allegedly stolen Niranjan’s bicycle and Lalchand was later seen with it. Niranjan then confronted him and he told him that he got the bike from Vishal.
Lalchand then took Niranjan, Khan and three other persons to Vishal’s house where an argument ensued. Khan said Babzie came out of the house with a cutlass and chopped Niranjan while the other men beat him with pieces of wood. Niranjan died two days later.
