THE fisherman convicted of the 2021 murder of Guyanese businessman Hemraj Pardesi, who was living in the United States, was given a life sentence with the possibility of parole after 30 years.

In January, Mario Bissoondial, 34, of Cumberland Village, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), pleaded guilty to killing 67-year-old Pardesi in August 2021.
The sentence was handed down, on Tuesday, by Berbice High Court Judge, Jo Ann Barlow.

The Judge ordered the Prison Service to take six years out of the 30 years to give Bissoondial credit for his early guilty plea as well as 928 days for the time he spent on remand.

In order to support his rehabilitation, the Judge further ordered that he be exposed to programmes designed specifically for persons convicted of violent crimes and skill development.

Attorney-at-Law, Kevin Morgan, defended Bissoondial.

State Counsel, Muntaz Ali, presented the prosecution’s case.

Bissoondial was detained by the police following the murder.

In the early hours of Wednesday, August 4, 2021, Pardesi—who would usually travel back and forth between Guyana and the United States—was discovered face down in his yard at Reliance Settlement, East Canje, Berbice, with blood dripping from his nose.

According to reports, Bissoondial had told authorities that a woman Pardesi knew well had hired him and another man to rob him. He said, however, that Pardesi was strangled after a struggle that started when his accomplice attacked the man with an iron bar during the robbery.

The pair reportedly took a bag containing $800,000 from Pardesi’s home.

Pardesi reportedly took the money out of the bank to renovate his property.

In August 2021, Malisha Dutchin, 28, of Reliance, East Canje, Region Six, and Bissoondial were charged with the man’s murder. They were remanded to prison.

That same month, the police had also issued a wanted bulletin for 34-year-old Jason Isaacs of Lot 18 Bristol Street, East Canje, Berbice, in connection with Pardesi’s killing.

It was reported in November 2023 that Isaacs had escaped from the Paramaribo University Hospital. He was admitted to the facility after he was shot in the legs by the police after he allegedly shot and killed 39-year-old Curtis Brown, formerly of Queenstown, Corriverton, Corentyne, Berbice. That murder occurred on October 13, 2023.

At the time, Brown was reportedly attempting to break up a fight outside a Paramaribo nightclub.

It is not known if Isaacs was ever re-arrested.