By George Barclay

THIRTY-THREE-year-old murder accused Shakir Mohamed was on Friday freed of the murder of Shewraney Doobay, called ‘Monica’, on a no-case submission by Attorney-at-Law Maxwell McKay.The accused, who had given the police a caution statement purporting to show that he had assisted in the disposal of the death weapon, should have been charged with accessory after the fact, but was instead charged along with Mark Singh, the number one accused and nephew of Shewraney Doobay, the wife of Dr Ramsundar Doobay.

Shakir and Mark Singh were jointly charged with the murder of the 58- year-old woman, who was found dead in her Echillibar Villas home in Campbellville on Tuesday, May 2, 2011 after she had alleged been struck on the head with a hammer by Mark, who subsequently died in prison while awaiting trial.

On the other hand, Shakir Mohamed, at his first trial at the Demerara Assizes, became the victim of a hung jury, hence the advent of a retrial.

The end of that trial came on Thursday afternoon following the testimony of the last witness, who testified via the Skype network.

At the closure of the prosecution’s case, Attorney Mc Kay elected to make a no-case submission, claiming that there was no evidence to show that his client had taken part in any conspiracy to kill Mrs Doobay.
Counsel pointed out that throughout the evidence, there was nothing to connect his client with the crime, except the caution statement, which gave the impression that he was trying to dispose of the death weapon.

According to counsel, his client was not charged with accessory after the fact, and there was no such offence before the court.
When asked by the Chronicle what he thought would be his chance if the Director of Public Prosecutions carries out her plan to appeal, Mc Kay replied: “They do not have a leg to stand on.”

He recalled that before the trial began, he offered the State the opportunity to amend the charge and accept a plea of “accessory after the fact”. Counsel said that offer was rejected by the State.
It was learnt that the majority sentence for the offence of ‘accessory after the fact’ is a penalty of two years.

Prosecutors in the matter were Miss Narissa Leander, Mr Siand Dhurjon and Mr Michael Shahoud.

Justice Singh accepted the no-case submission and directed the jury to return a formal verdict of not guilty in favour of the accused Shakir Mohamed.