–for brutal murder of Henry boys

THREE men were on Friday remanded to prison for the brutal murders of teen cousins, Isaiah and Joel Henry, whose mutilated bodies were found at the Cotton Tree backlands, on the West Coast Berbice, last September.
Akash Singh, 20, called “Monkey”, of Zeelugt, East Bank Essequibo (EBE); his stepbrother, Anil Sancharra, 33, called “Dan-Pole” and “Rasta”, of D’Edward Village, WCB; and Vinod Gopaul, 34, called “Magga”, of Yakusari, Black Bush Polder, Corentyne, Berbice all appeared before Magistrate Peter Hugh at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.
Gopaul and Sancharra were charged jointly for the capital offence, while Singh was charge separately. The trio was remanded to prison, and will make their next appearance at the Blairmont Magistrate’s Court on February 2.

“Meh ain’t know nothing about duh! Ah innocent,” Sancharra said to reporters while being taken into the court compound. “Nuh me,” claimed Gopaul, adding: “I innocent; his (Sancharra) brother calling my name wrongfully.”
The mutilated bodies of Isaiah, 16, and Joel, 18, were found on September 6, 2020 in the Cotton Tree Backdam in West Berbice. A post-mortem found that the Henry boys died from haemorrhage and shock, due to multiple incised wounds. They both sustained severed spines, along with multiple chops about the body. The killers carved out a huge ‘X’ on Isaiah’s head, while they cut open Joel’s chest.

It is suspected that the boys had died some 36 hours prior to being found. Three days later, Haresh Singh, 17, was found, in a bloodied state as well, in the Number Three Village backlands, hours after he left home on his motorcycle to transport water for his relatives who were working on their farm.
The post-mortem on Singh indicated that he died of brain haemorrhage and blunt trauma to the head, compounded by compression injuries to the neck. No arrest has been made for Singh’s murder. The gruesome deaths sent shockwaves throughout the country, and resulted in widespread public outrage and mass protests.
The Guyana Chronicle was made to understand that Singh was arrested last Sunday, after an informant went to the police. Gopaul and Sancharra were later arrested.
It is alleged that Singh confessed to the crime, while Gopaul and Sancharra have remained silent.

In his confession, Singh told detectives that during the month of August 2020, he accompanied Gopaul and Sancharra to the backlands of West Coast Berbice to cultivate cannabis.
However, after planting the cannabis, they left the area and later returned in September. Upon their arrival, they discovered that the farm was destroyed.
It is alleged that on the day in question, the Henry boys were in the backlands, and were passing the said camp.
Singh told the police that they asked the Henry boys if they wanted cannabis to smoke, but the boys instead asked if they had anything to eat.
However, after the conversation progressed, the men told the boys about the destroyed field of cannabis, and they began laughing. This led the trio to believe that the boys had caused the destruction of the cannabis cultivation.

Singh told the police that Gopaul and Sancharra attacked the two boys with cutlasses, and threated to kill him if he did not help them.
He related that he took a cutlass and began chopping the two teens, and then marked an ‘X’ on the forehead of one the boys.
Singh said that Gopaul and Sancharra left the camp on horseback with the boys’ bodies, and later came back to set fire to the areas where the murder occurred.