A MIXED Berbice Assizes jury, after deliberating for two hours, last week, freed teenager Rooplall Abrahim called Vijay, who was accused of murder. Discharging him, Justice Dawn Gregory told him he was free to go and, before leaving the courtroom, to be embraced by anxious relatives, Abrahim whispered his thanks to the judge.
Last week Thursday, prior to the weekend adjournment, the prisoner, in an unsworn statement from the dock, had denied seeing the victim Kavita Panday or her mother Claudette David on September 8, 2008, when the girl’s body was discovered afloat in a canal aback of Bath Settlement, West Coast Berbice.
Abrahim, now 18 years old, acknowledged that he was also known as Vijay and not Ajay, as he was, sometimes, referred to during the trial.
He claimed he was alone at home on that fateful day.
Government Pathologist, Dr. Vivekanand Brijmohan had cited the cause of death as due to asphyxia and drowning, coupled with multiple injuries.
After describing the term asphyxia, the registered medical practitioner said his opinion is that the girl could have died from manual strangulation.
State Counsel Rhondel  Weaver, in her opening address, had alleged that Claudette David, mother of the deceased, had seen her daughter, then 13 years old and, then 16-year old, Abrahim riding towards her parents’ farm on the canal embankment.
The girl ventured into the area to chase cows that had managed to get into the farm, which is located some distance from houses and, after she failed to return home, a frantic search led to the discovery of her battered body with tights, underwear and skirt below the knee, floating in a trench.