High Court grants common-law wife co-administrative rights
BIBI Ally, the common-law wife of 12 years of murdered businessman, Terry Bacchus, who petitioned the High Court to have her included as a co-administrator of his assets, has been granted such right.
An order to the effect was handed down by Acting Chief Justice Ian Chang on Friday.
Bacchus, who owned and operated several businesses in the city and on the East and West Coast of Demerara, was on May 22 last gunned down in the city, execution style, just outside his Water Street store.
Bibi Ally bore him two children, Theresa, 10, and Tereena, eight, while another woman, Kumarie Ramkellawan, bore him a son named Terrence. All three children carry their father’s title.
On May 29, just two days after Bacchus was buried and five days after he was executed, Ramkellawan approached the court, by way of an Ex Parte Summons and Supporting Affidavit, for an order appointing her the administrator of Bacchus’ estate, and another appointing Attorney-at-law, Kashir Khan, receiver of the dead man’s assets. Both orders were granted.
However, on Friday, Bibi Ally and Kowsilla Ajodha, the dead man’s mother, moved to the court to remove Ramkellawan as the administrator of the estate and discharge Kashir Khan as the receiver of the estate.
In a sworn-affidavit, Bibi Ally, who gave her address as 34 Gas Station, said she and Bacchus were in August 1998 married according to Muslim rites, and that she remained his wife until his death on May 22.
She further stated that four years after the birth of their second daughter, Ramkellawan, with whom Bacchus reportedly had a visiting relationship, bore him a son, the boy Terrence.
Relatives claim that Bacchus and Ramkellawan did not enjoy a good relationship, and that the two were not on speaking terms for some three weeks. They also claim that it was only three days before Bacchus was killed that the friendship between the two was reconciled.
In her affidavit, Bibi Ally bemoaned the fact that Ramkellawan moved to the court to control Bacchus’ assets, and that this was done even though a death certificate had not yet been issued for the deceased.
As such, she charges in the affidavit, there was no evidence of a delay, or likelihood of one, to necessitate the granting of the orders to make Ramkellawan administrator of the estate, as was the basis upon which the court granted the order making her administrator of Bacchus’ estate.
Again according Bibi Ally, Ramkellawan was, and is, not entitled to a general grant of administration with respect to Bacchus’ estate.  She went on to say in her affidavit that since the orders were granted, Ramkellawan has plundered the deceased’s estate to the detriment of the beneficiaries, creditors and other parties with a claim against the estate.
Ally swears she has video recordings as proof of the plunder, adding that even though the receiver, Khan, was informed of such developments, he failed to take the necessary steps to arrest the perpetrator or prevent such an occurrence.
Bibi Ally claims that on the June 7, 2010, Ramkellawan, accompanied by armed men, supervised the removal of goods from the bonds and stores of the deceased, and that on that said day, the home, bond and business premises of Bacchus, situated at Anna Catherina, were sealed by the receiver.
Ally also swore in her affidavit that the receiver has not yet secured the bond and business premises at Mon Repos, and that on June 9, Ramkellawan and her agents were seen removing truckloads of goods and other items from the said bond, as well as from Double Discount Store, another business Bacchus operated.
Ally claims that her lawyers wrote Ramkellawan’s attorney,  Anil Nandlal, requesting a photocopy of the proceedings and the orders granted to his client, but this has not yet been provided.
Ally claims that as the widow, she and Bacchus’ mother, Adjodha, are the only persons entitled to a general or full grant of Letters of Administration of the dead man’s estate.