A SERGEANT, stationed at Police ‘G’ Division was on Thursday arraigned before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court charged with corruptly obtaining money to ‘duck’ a murder charge.

Lakeram Deochan, of Charity, Essequibo Coast, who has been a member of the Guyana Police Force for some 23 years, pleaded not guilty to the charge. It is alleged that on April 26, at Charity, while being an agent of the Government of Guyana, he corruptly obtained the sum of $2M cash, from Nalini Baharally, as an inducement to forgo a criminal charge against her husband Lennox Baharally, following a boat mishap which resulted in the death of Mohamed Shameer.

Attorney George Thomas, during an application for bail, indicated to the court that his client denies taking any money from Nalini Baharally since he never met her. According to the lawyer, at the time of the alleged offence, his client was on annual vacation leave, thus making it impossible for him to deal with the matter. Police Prosecutor Inspector Neville Jeffers did not object to bail and did reveal the facts of the case to the court.

The Chief Magistrate released the Sergeant on $100,000 bail and transferred the matter to the Charity Magistrate’s Court for December 17.

In July, Lennox Baharally, a boat builder was charged with the murder of Mohamed Shameer, who was also his uncle. Baharally’s 19-year-old apprentice Rondel Edwards was also jointly charged with murdering Mohammed Abdool Shameer on April 25 at Jacklow, Pomeroon.

Baharally and Edwards had allegedly buried Shameer’s body in a shallow grave along the bank of the Moruca River in the Pomeroon. Shameer, a farmer, had left his home in a paddle boat at about 19:30h on April 25 to visit a friend, and was reportedly returning home when his boat was run over by a larger one captained by Baharally, who had two other persons, including Edwards, in his boat.