Seeram Sumair, who was accused of causing the death of a man following a fight on Old Year’s Day in 2007, was last Wednesday sentenced to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter. However, he will only serve four years as Justice Navindra Singh said four years will be deducted for time served while on remand awaiting trial.
The charge against Sumair, called ‘Sunny’ and ‘Moses,’ stated that on December 31, 2007, at Timehri, East Bank Demerara, he murdered 34-year-old Rajesh Seeram. At the time of the killing Sumair was 16.
It was explained that on the day of the fight, the accused, who was gainfully employed as a mason, had returned home from church and met his employer, who offered him a meal but Seeram approached him and asked him if he did not have food at his home.
As a result of this, a fight ensued, which subsequently resulted in Seeram’s death.
In making a plea of mitigation, defence counsel Peter Hugh asked the court for leniency, considering the fact that his client was provoked by the deceased and he has since accepted that his actions on that day led to a life being lost.
Hugh asked the judge to consider that his client had no previous convictions and that by entering a guilty plea he did not waste the court’s time.
Additionally, Hugh stated that Sumair, who was 16 at the time of the killing, was gainfully employed as a mason as a means of providing for his common-law wife, who was pregnant at the time
In his own address to the judge, Sumair explained that he has a son who needs him and that he was sorry for what had happened. Taking into account that Sumair was a juvenile when the incident took place and that the deceased provoked the altercation, the judge sentenced him to eight years in jail.
