Farmer Ganesh Dhanraj, who in 2017 strangled his wife during an argument at their Parika home, was yesterday handed a 24-year sentence, but following deductions for his guilty plea and time spent on remand, will serve just under 11 years.
In imposing the base sentence, Justice Jo-Ann Barlow said that the fact the woman lost her life by domestic violence could not be overlooked by the Court, but went on to note that mandatory deductions would be made for the offender’s early plea and the time he spent on remand.
She said she found no reasons to move the Court to deviate from granting the one-third reduction for the early plea, and the five years, five months he had been on remand.
As aggravating factors the Judge said she had considered that the deceased was young—being in her twenties—and that though she had tried to leave the home with relatives who sensed that her safety may have been in jeopardy, Dhanraj prevented her, and would later take her life.
She said, too, that while no weapon was used, the degree of violence exerted on the woman by strangulation had to be considered by the Court, along with the fact that the offender attempted to conceal his crime, by placing the woman’s body under a rug, before escaping.
Justice Barlow said that she was not going to impose the maximum penalty on Dhanraj, since his case “was not the worst of the worst;” and also given his potential for rehabilitation and his expression of remorse.
In addition to the sentence, the Judge has ordered that Dhanraj undergo counselling for the remainder of his time behind bars.
In his address to the court, the 36-year-old said that he was very sorry for what he had done, even as he begged the dead woman’s family for their forgiveness; stating that it was not his intention to kill her.
His claim was that “it was an accident.”
Begging for a “second chance” to return to society to be a better person,” Dhanraj said he also wanted the woman’s three children to know that he was sorry for taking her from them.
His attorney Ravindra Mohabir had also begged the Court for leniency.
Referencing the probation report which he said underscored his client’s good behaviour since being incarcerated and the fact that he had taken responsibility for what he had done, Mohabir pleaded with the Judge, “Please temper justice with mercy.”
In a victim impact statement read on behalf of the woman’s sister Latchmie Jailall, the court heard of the void her death has created in their family; noting the close bond among the siblings which Jailall said no longer exists.
Having grown up without her mother, Jailall related in the statement that as the small sister, it was Ram who played the role of a mother to her and was her confidant.
“She was my best friend, my source of strength…and I still cry for her,” the court heard from the statement.
The facts of the case presented by state counsel Latifah Elliot were that Ram and her husband were arguing when he grabbed her neck and choked her.
She said that after realizing that the woman had become unresponsive, Dhanraj became afraid and fled the scene after his attempts at concealing the woman’s body.
Elliot said an autopsy would later reveal that the woman died of asphyxiation due to compression injuries and blunt trauma.
Ram had been found dead by Jailall, who had told Stabroek News that Dhanraj had forced Ram into their house and locked himself with her inside.
Jailall had said that she left and returned a little later, only to discover her sister’s lifeless body.
Following the woman’s killing, Dhanraj had been on the lam after plunging into the Essequibo River at Roden Rust to evade the police.
At his arraignment last month, he pleaded not guilty to a charge of murder when it was read to him, but pleaded to the lesser charge of manslaughter.
He accepted that he unlawfully killed his reputed wife Dhanwantie Ram called “Sister” on April 5th, 2017 at their Parika, East Bank Essequibo home.
