Fisherman Sanjay Seecharran, who admitted to stealing a quantity of fibre optic cable belonging to the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GTT), was on Tuesday sentenced to three years in jail for the crime.
Seecharran, 24, was arraigned before Magistrate Sunil Scarce in Georgetown, where he was read the charge that between July 22 and July 24, 2017, at Soesdyke, East Bank Demerara, he stole the fibre optic cable, valued at $1,394,444, and which was the property of GTT.
Subsequently, Seecharran, of Lot 14 Grove, East Bank Demerara, pleaded guilty and he was sentenced by Magistrate Scarce to three years in jail.
Meanwhile, in the courtroom of Magistrate Annette Singh yesterday, another man, Ricky Singh, 22, was charged with committing the very offence. He, however, denied the allegation and was subsequently granted his release on $350,000 bail.
Singh was also ordered to report to police every Friday until the completion of his trial. The case was then adjourned until August 25.
Last month, GTT announced that it was offering a reward of $1 million for information leading to the arrest of those responsible for the vandalism of its fibre optic cables in what it called acts of sabotage.
It listed July 22 as the date of the most recent incident. It had said that recent acts of vandalism resulted in the disruption of service to over 20,000 customers in the mining hub of Linden, Ituni, Kwakwani, Mabura, Mahdia, and Bartica. GTT estimated that the loss of service and the restoration effort were equal to $50 million.
