A Corriverton fish vendor was remanded to prison on Thursday after he was slapped with two narcotics charges, including possession of cocaine for trafficking.
Devise Sewkumar, 45, of Number 77 Village, Corriverton, Corentyne, Berbice was charged with possession of narcotics for the purpose of trafficking and possession of narcotics. He pleaded not guilty to both charges when he appeared before Magistrate Roby Benn in the Springlands Magistrate’s Court.
According to the police’s case against Sewkumar, on Tuesday, August 13, acting on information a party of police on mobile patrol at Number 75 Village travelled to his home at Third Street, Number 77 Village and informed him of the allegations.
Sergeant McCoy then informed Sewkumar that they needed to conduct a search. He reportedly agreed to the search, during which police found a parcel wrapped in brown paper under a pillow on his bed.
The parcel contained leaves, seeds and stems suspected to be cannabis. A search was also conducted on Sewkumar’s person and five pieces of paper containing a white substance was found in his right side pants pocket. He was cautioned by the lawmen and taken to the Springlands Police Station, where the cannabis was weighed and found to be one gramme and the cocaine weighed and found to be two grammes.
In court, Sewkumar’s attorney Krishndat Persaud applied for bail on the grounds that his client has several medical conditions and he is the sole bread winner of his family. Persaud also pointed out to the court that the cannabis was found under a pillow and not on the defendant.
However, Prosecutor Althea Solomon objected to bail on the grounds that the suspected cannabis was found in a pillow case on a bed that was identified as the defendant’s. She then reiterated that two grammes of cocaine were found on Sewkumar’s person. The prosecutor also argued that due to the prevalence of the offence bail should be denied unless special reasons are given that are related to the offence and not the offender.
As a result, while the magistrate granted Sewkumar $75,000 bail on the possession charge related to the cannabis, he was refused bail on the cocaine trafficking charge.
He was remanded to prison and ordered to appear in court on September 12 for report and fixtures for trial.
