…sister-in-law refuses to take responsibility

JUSTICE Brassington Reynolds on Thursday, July 26, 2018, was forced to remand Sudesh Rambhajue of Vergenoegen, East Bank Essequibo, to ensure that he shows up for trial.
On Tuesday, July 17, 2018, Sudesh stood before Justice Reynolds to face charges for alternative counts. First count: attempt to commit murder; second count: felonious wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. He proclaimed his innocence on both charges.

The accused showed up unrepresented and stated that he could not afford a lawyer and requested the assistance of the State in assigning a lawyer to him. Justice Reynolds informed him that the State do not assign lawyers to such matters. He then postponed the trial to give the accused more time to get legal representation .

He then gave the accused a deadline of Monday, July 23rd, 2018 to source representation and return to court for trial. The trial was again postponed since Rambhajue showed up without representation. He and his family pleaded with Justice Reynolds, saying that they did not have the financial resources to secure a lawyer for Sudesh. Showing mercy, Justice Reynolds made a few recommendations to the accused and postponed the trial for Wednesday, July 25th 2018.

After two postponements, the accused did not show up for trial on July 25th, 2018 and did not communicate with the court. On Thursday July 26, 2018, the trial finally commenced with Rambhajue stating that he was working on an island and had no transportation to get over in time for his trial, neither did he had a phone to make a call to communicate same to the court.

His bailer, who is his sister-in-law, was asked by the judge if she could assure the court that she will ensure that Rambhajue shows up for court. “No sir, I will not take that responsibility, cause sometimes he’s home and sometimes I don’t know where to find him, so I’m not going to take responsibility for him,” Rambhajue’s sister-in-law said. On that note the judge remanded the accused, since no assurance was given that he would show up for trial.

When the trial started, Rambhajue led his own defence. State prosecutor Seeta Bishundial stated that on September 15th, 2015, Sudesh Rambhajue wounded Latchman Narine Persaud of School Street, Vergenoegen.

The State brought before the court three witnesses to testify.