Malisha Dutchin, who is accused of being the mastermind behind the murder of overseas-based Guya-nese Hemraj Pardesi, was yesterday charged with the crime alongside an alleged accomplice, as police continued a hunt for a third suspect.
Dutchin, 23, of Lot 4 Reliance Settlement, East Canje, Berbice, and Mario Bissoondial, 32, a fisherman of Cumberland Village, East Canje, Ber-bice, both appeared before Magistrate Renita Singh at the New Amsterdam Magistrate’s Court, where they were charged jointly with murdering Pardesi at his Lot 9 Reliance Settlement house in the furtherance of a robbery.
The two unrepresented accused were not required to plead and were remanded to prison until Septem-ber 9, after police prose-cutor Winston Poliah indicated that the police’s file is incomplete since they are awaiting forensic and autopsy reports. As a result, the prosecutor requested that the next court date be in one month’s time.
A weeping Dutchin yesterday told the court that she had never been charged before, while Bissoondial said that he was charged three times in the past for armed robbery. “Every-thing that Jason Isaacs was charged with,” Bissoondial said when he was questioned by Magistrate Singh about the previous charges he had faced.
A wanted bulletin was issued last Friday for Isaacs, 32, of Bristol Street, East Canje, Berbice.
Police last Wednesday arrested Bissoondial, who reportedly confessed that he and Isaacs were hired by Dutchin to rob Pardesi. However, he alleged that during the robbery Isaacs used an iron bar to hit Pardesi, after which they had a scuffle and then Isaacs allegedly strangled Pardesi.
The duo then used Par-desi’s key to gain access to the upper flat of his home, from where Isaacs retrieved a bag of money.
During the wee hours of Wednesday morning last week, Pardesi was found with a wound at the top of his head where it is suspected that he was initially struck. An autopsy gave the cause of his death as ligature strangulation and blunt trauma to the head.
The upper flat of his house was ransacked and it is suspected that the perpetrators carted off $800,000 that Pardesi reportedly withdrew from the bank on Tuesday last for renovations to his premises.
In 2019, both male suspects were charged with armed robbery committed on a Canje supermarket, while Isaacs was also previously charged with burglary committed on a Canje goldsmith.
Meanwhile, Bissoondial had told investigators that Dutchin phoned Pardesi to visit her on Tuesday night so as to allow them time to gain entry to his yard. The two reportedly shared a relationship. However, Dutchin, who turned herself into police custody last Friday, claimed that while she had indeed phoned Pardesi to visit her, she had no idea what happened after he returned home.
At the court house yesterday, Dutchin’s relatives alleged that she was being framed and is innocent of the crime.
