C.N. Sharma rape case…
CONTROVERSIAL television broadcaster and aspiring President Chandra Narine Sharma, his son-in-law Ravi Mangar, his employee Tyrone Ali and Mark Reid made yet another appearance before Magistrate Geeta Chandan-Edmond yesterday as the case against them for obstructing the course of justice continues. Police Sergeant Alexis David-Hassanah, prosecuting, requested for the Administration of Justice Act (AJA) to be applied and that the defendants enter a plea on the charges. She said the Director of Public Prosecutions had advised to allow the matters to be tried in the magistrate court, since the High Court is over-crowded.
Defence Counsel Mr. Vic Puran, who is representing Sharma and Ali, objected for the AJA to be applied and stated that he prefers the matter to be tried by a judge and a jury.
The magistrate decided not to have the AJA applied since the prosecutor did not convince the court enough as to whether the AJA should be applied or not.
The preliminary inquiry in the case against Sharma and Ali was expected to commence yesterday, but the prosecutor declared that she was not in a position to go ahead.
Attorney-at-law Mark Waldron representing Mangar and Reid, submitted to the court that it is not right for the state to be playing games in the cases. He requested that the charges against his clients be dismissed since the prosecutor is never in a position to commence the case.
The lawyer added that there is always an adjournment in the case due to the case jackets always being absent.
In response, the magistrate asked the lawyer to re-new his application at the next hearing. All the matters were set for June 21.
On April 23, five persons were charged after they allegedly offered inducements to the young girls at the centre of the child molestation case against Chandra Narine Sharma. They include his son-in-law and three employees.
Gizmos and Gadgets owner Ravi Mangar and his security guard, as well as three CNS Channel 6 workers, were arraigned on charges of attempting to obstruct the course of justice and Acting Chief Magistrate Melissa Robertson placed each of them on $100,000 bail.
Mangar, 29, of 33 Bel Air Springs, was charged with procuring his security guard to obstruct the course of justice by influencing him to bribe the girls in the matter. It is alleged that on April 17, Mangar procured Reid to attempt to obstruct the course of justice by bribing the girl. Reid, it was alleged, willfully attempted to obstruct the course of justice by offering $2M to all the girls in the matter, as well as a house and land, so that they would not give evidence against Sharma in relation to sexual offences he allegedly committed on them.
The guard, Mark Reid, 29, of 12 Wellington Street, was charged with attempting to obstruct the course of justice. Meanwhile, CNS Channel 6 Administrator Tyrone Ali, 34, of 714 Cummings Lodge; Sharma’s driver, Doonauth Sharma, 43, of 1075 Golden Grove Housing Scheme; and Raymattie Ramsaywack, 42, of 63 Houston Housing Scheme, were also charged with attempting to obstruct the course of justice, but none of them was required to enter a plea to the indictable charge.
On April 26, Sharma appeared before Acting Chief Magistrate Melissa Robertson and he was not required to plead to the charge of attempting to obstruct the course of justice.
The particulars of the charge read that on April 15, he willfully attempted to obstruct the course of justice by removing two of the girls at the centre of the allegations against him from their known address and taking them to a house at 123 Golden Grove, East Bank Demerara, in order to prevent them from being questioned by the police in relation to the allegations.
He was granted bail in the sum of $100,000.