FORTY-TWO-YEAR-OLD Rakesh Sookram of Fifth Street, Islington, New Amsterdam, Berbice, pleaded not guilty to a charge of cultivating prohibited plants.

He appeared at the New Amsterdam Court before Magistrate Peter Hugh and was granted $150,000 bail. Corporal Winston Poliah, prosecuting, said that, on Thursday April 9, ranks of the Guyana Police Force conducted a drug eradication exercise at Gateroy, Berbice River, where, at a cultivation plot, fifteen thousand cannabis sativa plants, ranging between one foot to six feet in height  were seen and was subsequently destroyed by fire. The defendant was arrested at the farm. He is expected to return to court on May 19.