(Trinidad Express) Underwater welder Leon Apping has been charged with the murder of Gasparillo businessman Anand Maharaj.
Apping, 29, was charged on Thursday night following instructions by the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to officers of Homicide Region III.
Maharaj, 60, suffocated to death in the plastic in which he was wrapped on Saturday.
The pathologist who performed the autopsy at the Forensic Sciences found that Maharaj, died as a result of asphyxia.
The body was wrapped in plastic and concealed beneath a couch in the rented apartment of a customer of his at Rawlins Street, San Fabien Road, Gasparillo.
It is suspected that the killer had wrapped Maharaj’s body in the plastic and had intended to dispose of it later that night.
Maharaj was the owner of Triple A Auto Services Limited which he ran out of his home at Jeffers Lane.
Police found the rental Nissan Note in the yard of the suspect’s apartment.
It was initially suspected that Maharaj was the victim of a kidnapping, but, some three hours after detaining the suspect detectives returned to the apartment and discovered the businessman’s body.
