The three men accused of stealing over $17 million belonging to the Shamdas Kirpalani store in an armed robbery appeared in court again yesterday before Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry and were allowed to plead, while one man was granted a reduction in bail.
A fourth accused, charged with receiving stolen funds, also appeared and the quartet pleaded not guilty after the Administration of Justice Act was applied.
It is the police’s case that Howard Rambarose, Rajiv Rajesh Singh, and Alastair Naughton robbed Mahesh Chetrani, an employee of the store, of $17.25 million on December 20 at Georgetown while being armed with a gun.
During the initial appearance in December, Prosecutor Bharat Mangru had stated that Singh had been employed by the general store and had been tasked with depositing the store’s funds into its bank account. On the date in question, Singh was in the company’s vehicle en route to deposit the funds when the vehicle was allegedly held up by Rambarose and Naughton.
Joan Persaud, Singh’s aunt, was also charged in December with receiving $370,000 of the stolen funds.
Singh had initially been granted $500,000 bail while the other two men had been remanded to prison. However, Singh’s co-defendants were later granted bail in similar sums.
Naughton, who had been unable to come up with the $500,000 bail, made an application for a reduction yesterday. After consideration, Magistrate Sewnarine-Beharry reduced the man’s bail to $400,000.
The trio as well as Persaud will return to court on April 2 for reports.
