The 26-year-old United States fugitive who was hiding here for five years and was last week arrested at a horse racing event in Berbice and extradited, appeared in a New York court yesterday charged over the hit-and-run accident that claimed the life of a 67-year-old Jamaican-American man.
The US’s ABC News 7 reported that Ravindra Dharamjit was arraigned yesterday morning at a court in Queens, New York on charges of manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death and reckless driving. Prosecutors said he was speeding and travelling at 74 mph in a 25 mph zone.
Stabroek News understands that Dharamjit and his family were celebrating at the Guyana Cup Horse Racing event at the Rising Turf Club on August 11th, when United States Federal Agents and the Guyana Police Force arrived. The latter subsequently placed the man under arrest. He was processed, handed over to US authorities and flown back to the US the same night.
Dharamjit has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him. The report said that his attorneys asked not for bail but that he be put in protective custody. They said that he had come to Guyana to work and eventually got married and started a life and didn’t know he was under investigation.
Allegations against Dharamjit are that in 2019 he struck down 69-year-old Ainsley Dalrymple, who was crossing Rockaway Boulevard at 114th Street, after a Christmas gathering at his eldest son’s house. He fled the scene and escaped to Guyana where he hid for five years.
The prosecution said he bought a one-way ticket to Guyana just three weeks after the crash and only returned to the US back due to the efforts of the NYPD.
The report said that Dharamjit was arrested by the Guyana Police Force at a horse racing event and “after a long process, US Marshals brought the suspect to Miami earlier this week” and he flew back to Queens.
Unlike other extraditions, the Guyana Police Force has not issued a statement on his arrest. Police Press Relations Officer Mark Ramotar had only confirmed that someone was arrested at the horse race meet in Berbice and was extradited.
The victim’s family, according to the report, said they learned on Thursday that the suspect was found and taken to Miami, a day they believed would never come. “We just hope that justice will be served and my dad will finally rest in peace… he’s not going to come back to us, but at least we know that the person who took him from us is going to pay,” the ABC report quoted his daughter Sherrice Dalrymple as saying.
Dalrymple was described as a man who loved his family and was a hard-worker.
“The first piece of this journey, and totally relieved, his family, his kids and my sister as well, that there’s a little bit of peace right now until the final decision, so there is a God and we will get what we are due,” his sister-in-law Jean Washington was quoted as saying.
The victim’s family said they will be there for every single court hearing.
