Policing group member, 20, charged with labourer’s killing

Dec 24, 2013 News

A 20-year-old member of a West Bank Demerara policing group has been charged with murder following the shooting death of Belle Vue labourer, Godfrey Jhaggroo, last week, in a case that left a community divided.

Charged with murder: Harry Rajpat

Harry ‘Sudesh’ Rajpat, a mechanic, yesterday appeared before Magistrate Clive Nurse at the Wales Magistrate’s Court charged with murder. He was remanded until February 20. He is being represented by Senior Counsel Bernard De Santos and his wife, Pamela De Santos.
Rajpat was taken to court shortly after the post mortem examination was performed on Godfrey Jhaggroo, who also lived not far away in the same community as the accused. Jhaggroo reportedly died from injuries received from a shotgun blast, the post mortem examination revealed.
Kaieteur News, in its reports last Friday, said that Rajpat is the son of a senior community policing group member.
Residents have alleged that the shooting occurred Thursday evening shortly after a neighbour, who owns a rum shop, intervened in an argument between Jhaggroo and his mother.
It is alleged that the neighbour went into the mother’s yard and struck Jhaggroo with a piece of wood. The injured man reportedly hurled back the same piece of wood which struck the neighbour’s daughter.
Kaieteur News was told that the rum shop owner complained to members of the Community Policing Group (CPG) about the incident.
According to an eyewitness, a vehicle with two members of the neighbourhood policing group, including Rajpat, caught up with Jhaggroo on the public road.
Persons close to the scene said at least one warning shot was fired before Jhaggroo was shot in the back.
The victim’s mother claimed that he was heading to the Wales Police Station to make a complaint and she later heard that he had been shot.

Killed: Godfrey Jhaggroo

Relatives learnt that he was taken to the West Demerara Regional Hospital from where the alleged shooter fled after learning that the wounded man had died.
The rum shop owner, the licenced firearm owner, and Rajpat’s father had initially been held but were later released without being charged.
The case has ripped the community apart. Belle Vue is located just past the entrance to Canal Number Two, West Bank of Demerara, along a narrow stretch just off the “sea dam” of the Demerara River.