– Court hears of gruesome murder

By Michel Outridge
THE 2010 murder trial of taxi driver Bhomeshwar Sukhdeo commenced in the High Court yesterday before Justice Navindra Singh and a 12-member jury. Several witnesses are testifying.

The State is being represented by Narissa Leander in association with Teshanna James-Lake, while the defence counsels are Jermaine Jervis and Clevann Humphrey.

In her opening statement, Leander told the court that the deceased had been a taxi driver who had last been seen alive on January 19, after which a search was launched for him and his car.

She said that, on January 27, the car was found at a bodywork shop in Herstelling New Scheme, East Bank Demerara, and later the badly burnt body of Bhomeshwar Sukhdeo was discovered at Mocha Arcadia Access Road, also on the East Bank of Demerara.

Leander said the accused, Balram Singh, was arrested and charged for the offence.

The first witness, Bhoop Singh, who is the father-in-law of the deceased, told the court that the victim had been married to his daughter and had lived at his home for some time prior to his demise.

He noted that Bhomeshwar Sukhdeo had been a taxi driver who operated in the vicinity of Guyana Stores and drove a motor car which belonged to his son. Singh told the court he had last seen his son-in-law alive when he had visited his office at Houston, EBD. Thereafter, calls to his cell phone had gone unanswered and he had found that very strange.

After some hours, he and his family members had begun enquiring about Sukhdeo’s whereabouts at the hire car park, but had come up empty-handed; and after 24-hours had elapsed, they had filed a missing person report at the Brickdam Police Station.

Singh recalled that in an effort to locate Sukhdeo, he had printed flyers with his photo and had distributed them, and had initiated a search with his relatives.

He told the court that, on January 7, he and his son began searching Herstelling, and he observed a car which looked similar to the missing car parked under a house. He went to Providence Police Station and reported it to the ranks, and was accompanied by two officers to the house, which housed a bodywork shop, and there they observed the car was partially stripped.

There, he stated, they compared the engine and chassis numbers from the registration certificate he had in his possession; and it was revealed that the chassis number was different and appeared to have been tampered with.

Singh said he produced a spare key to the vehicle, and it opened the vehicle, started the ignition and engine, and at that point he knew the car was the missing one.

Singh said he managed to get the police to visit Mocha Arcadia Access Road, where they noticed the charred remains of a human body.

He told the court that he observed a section of the head had cropped hair and two missing teeth from the lower left side of the mouth, similar to that of his son-in-law. He said he came to the conclusion that the remains were those of his son-in-law.

Under cross-examination, Jermaine Jervis asked Singh if the body was burnt beyond recognition, and he said parts of the face were missing. When questioned, he said the owner of the bodywork shop was not at home when he had visited with the police, but the man’s wife was present.

Kumar Singh, the son of Bhoop Singh, also testified, saying he was the owner of the car, acquired in 2009 with licence plate number PLL 5912, but changed to HB 7419. He said his brother-in-law worked the car as a taxi, and he had last seeen him alive the night before he had gone missing.

He spoke of how he assisted his father in searching for the deceased and the car, and said the said car was later sold.

Chandra Gordon, wife of the owner of the bodywork shop, testified under oath that she was at home when Singh and the police showed up to check the car, and she cooperated.

She said she was asked to accompany them to the Providence Police Station, where she was detained until her husband showed up.

Gordon told the court that the car was in the workshop to be sprayed in yellow, and had been there for less than a week after being driven there by two men and her husband.

She identified the two men as ‘Bharat’, owner of a taxi service in Grove, and a man called ‘Papa’, an employee of Bharat (only name given).

Gordon added that her husband was arrested for three days, but was not charged.

Sookdeo Dookie, a welder/spray painter, also testified under oath. He said one Bharat had come to his house saying he “got a wuk fuh I do, and we can go see the car at his taxi service at Grove.”

Dookie told the court that they took the car to his workshop, and he was asked to paste on to the chassis of the car a series of numbers which were taken from a crashed vehicle, and he was also asked to spray the car.

He said the car was stripped and ready for spraying, but he did not get to do it.

Police witness Deputy Superintendent Ramesh Pareshram told the court he was stationed at Providence Police Station as the licensing and certifying officer in 2010, when he was asked to examine a car which was lodged in the compound of the station.

He said he noticed that the engine numbers corresponded with that on the certificate of registration, but the chassis numbers were different and appeared to have been tampered with, using compound.

At that point, he removed the fake numbers and saw the original chassis numbers, which were the same on the registration certificate of the car.

Under cross-examination, Pareshram said he reported his findings to his superiors, since it was a crime to tamper with the chassis number of a vehicle.

Yohan Henry, another police witness who is a Detective Sergeant attached to Bartica Police Station, told the court that in 2010 he was stationed at Kitty Criminal Investigations Department (CID) and was on duty when he received certain information.

He noted that on January 27, 2010, he went with a party of ranks to Lot 85 Second Street, Agricola, where he contacted Balram Singh and cautioned him, after he put the allegation of hijacking and murder to him.

Henry said Balram Singh replied saying, “Meh nah know nothing of what you talking about.”

He was, however, arrested and placed in custody at Brickdam Police Station.

Another police witness, Devon Bowen, a police constable who was stationed at Providence Police station in 2010, said he assisted in the probe, and relative to a report, accompanied Bhoop Singh to a house where a car was parked.

Bowen told the court that he met Chandra Gordon, who was present, and he told her of their findings and asked her to accompany them to the Providence Police Station, where the car was also lodged.

He also said he later received information and went to Mocha Arcadia Access Road, where, about 600 yards on the northern side of the road near a trench under a tree, he saw what appeared to be the burnt remains of a human body.

The indictment states that between January 19 and 27, 2010, in the county of Demerara, the accused Balram Singh murdered Bhomeshwar Sukhdeo. The car was hijacked and sold to a taxi service owner in Grove. The charred remains believed to be that of taxi driver Bhomeshwar Sukhdeo was found at Mocha Arcadia Access Road. It is believed that he was shot in the head and set alight, after which his body was dumped.