Cremation of Bridgette Gangadin’s body postponed again
As the body of Bridgette Gangadin was being prepared for cremation yesterday, her husband Dwarka Gangadin, clad in a black pants and a white shirt, calmly entered the Cove and John Magistrate Court, East Coast Demerara, and was remanded to prison for allegedly murdering her. He appeared before Magistrate Sherdel Isaacs-Marcus and was not required to plead to the indictable charge, which stated that on May 2, he murdered his wife, Bridgette Gangadin.
Gangadin, 34, of 3 ‘E’ Lusignan Public Road, East Coast Demerara, will return to the Vigilance Magistrate Court on June 4.
Senior Counsel Mr. Bernard De Santos represented the accused and informed the court about the previous High Court order which allows his client to be present at the cremation and for him to be allowed to perform the customary Hindu rituals.
Speaking to reporters in the court yard, De Santos said the Director of Public Prosecutions advised that the accused be escorted by police to attend the cremation.
De Santos told reporters that he is surprised that the police charged his client with the capital offence of murder and that his client is distraught at the moment.
When asked about the defence preparedness in the case, the lawyer said he will try the best he could to prove his client’s innocence. He said a possibility exists for the defence to move to the High Court and have the matter dismissed if a third autopsy proves otherwise.
The lawyer informed reporters that he did not see the autopsy report performed by the Trinidadian pathologist. He stated that he was only aware of the cause of death as strangulation after it was circulated in the media.
“We are dealing with science here and when the time comes it will stand out” asserted De Santos.
Relatives of both the accused and deceased were present in the court compound, dressed in black and white as it was expected that the cremation would have been done yesterday.
However, this was once again postponed to a date yet to be announced,
After the court hearing, as the accused was being escorted by police in handcuffs, a relative of the deceased broke down in tears and raised her hands saying “Oh God thank you so much. Justice must be served”.
Relatives of the dead woman stated that if the family of the accused needs a third autopsy the pathologist from Trinidad must be present to observe the proceedings.
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The woman was found on the roadway at Vigilance, East Coast Demerara, on May 2, and the first autopsy, by Dr. Nehaul Singh, established that the mother of three succumbed to a fractured skull and injuries consistent with her head being crushed.
Police, in a previously issued press release, had said they were investigating her suspected murder and had arrested her husband.
However, there were conflicting reports about how the woman met her demise, including one that she jumped from the vehicle which her husband was driving during a quarrel between them, and that he panicked and drove away from the scene after realizing that he had, accidentally, run over his wife.
But a second post mortem by Trinidadian Pathologist, Professor Hubert Daisley, at the Georgetown Public Hospital mortuary last Friday, said the woman was strangled.