AS the police investigation into the recent piracy attack on Guyanese fishermen in Surinamese waters continues, a 39-year-old local businessman has been charged with two armed robberies committed on two fishing vessels years ago.

He is Nakool Manohar, called “Fyah”, of Number 43 Village, Corentyne, who is also one of the persons of interest in the recent pillaging of four Guyanese-owned fishing vessels off Suriname and the concomitant slaying and or disappearance of some 20 fishermen in the commission of this dastardly act.

While being interrogated by local police, Manohar reportedly confessed to having a hand in other high-seas robberies.
He was subsequently charged, and brought Friday before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court, but was not required to plea to the two charges.

Particulars of the first charge allege that Monohar, while being in the company of other men and armed with guns and knives between April 1, 2015 and April 30,2015 robbed the ‘Sir Navin’, a vessel owned by one Daneshwar Reddy, of two 48HP outboard engines valued $1.8M while in Guyana’s territorial waters on the Corentyne River.

It is further alleged that between April 1, 2016 and April 30, 2016, at the same location and while being in the company of others armed with guns and knives, Monohar stole the ‘Captain Vikash’, a vessel owned by Vikash Balkisson valued $2.3M.

Manohar’s attorney, Joel Edmond, during his application for bail, explained that though his client is the owner of over 10 fishing vessels, he stays on land, while his employees go to sea.

Edmond further stressed that his client was in police custody since May 2, and the charges brought before the court are “concocted”, since the crimes for which he’s been charged occurred since 2015 and 2016.

The attorney further charged that the police have no evidence linking his client, who’s diabetic and suffers from severe back pains, to the crimes at reference.

However, Police Prosecutor Gordon Mansfield objected to bail being granted Monohar on the grounds that he’s a suspect in the ongoing police investigation into the recent pirate attack on four fishing vessels which resulted in the death of five fishermen and over 15 others going missing.

Prosecutor Mansfield said that the defendant was positively identified as one of the perpetrators in the robbery during a police identification parade.

The Chief Magistrate refused the businessman bail on the grounds of the seriousness attached to the charges. Monohar was remanded to prison until May 31, when his matter will be recalled at the Springlands Magistrates Court.
After his court appearance, he was then handed back over to the police as the investigation continues.

According to reports, on May 2, policemen went to Manohar’s home at Number 43 Village on the Corentyne and arrested him after word surfaced that he is the brother of “Sinbad”, who resides in Suriname and is being hunted by law enforcement there as investigations indicate that the deadly April 27, 2018 attack as being a “revenge act”. “Sinbad” is said to be the leader of the group of pirates who carried out the recent attack.

According to sources in Suriname, another sibling of theirs was murdered at his home in Suriname back in March, and the man alleged that the act was committed by fishermen. According to reports, he vowed to take revenge and attack fishermen.

Since then, there has been another pirate attack in an area in neighbouring Suriname called Matapica Creek, which saw the captain of the fishing vessel being fatally shot.