Suspect in Number 68 supermarket attack remanded

Dec 23, 2017 News

The injured Dinesh Lekram being assisted from the courtroom by a police rank

A 23-year-old farmer and father of one of Number 68 Village was yesterday remanded to prison after appearing in the Springlands Magistrate’s Court to answer to six separate charges.

The injured Dinesh Lekram appeared before Magistrate Rabindranauth Singh. He was charged with robbing Michael Saul while in the company of others of one gold chain worth $130,000, three gold rings worth $200,000 and US$1,500, a total of $846,000.

He was also charged with allegedly discharging a firearm at Devi Singh, Akash Persaud and Police Constable Michael Saul while in the company of others with the intent to maim, disfigure and cause actual bodily harm.

Adding to those charges was one count of robbing Raj Beharry – with an offensive weapon – of one cellphone valued at $25,000.

Lekram was additionally charged with gaining entry into the house of Akash Persaud with an offensive weapon and robbing him of $55,240 in GTT and Digicel phone cards, one J2 Samsung Galaxy cellphone worth $25,000, two Alcatel cellphones worth $40,000 and $234,000 cash.

He was not required to plead to those charges.

Meanwhile, a charge of damaging one car fender, private property of Michael Saul, was also read to Lekram. The accused was represented by Attorney-at-law Chandra Sohan.

In the prosecution’s defence, Prosecutor Orin Joseph stated that a haversack containing cellphones and cash were found in Lekram’s possession when Constable Saul and Persaud had apprehended him shortly after the robbery. The contents in the haversack were the property of Akash Persaud. He said that at the time of the arrest, Persaud’s phone rang while in the possession of the accused.

He added that Persaud and Saul both witnessed the accused removing his mask as he attempted to escape. A mask and a pair of gloves were retrieved.

Meanwhile, in defence of the accused, his lawyer argued that Saul’s car allegedly hit Lekram injuring his foot in two places, resulting in damage to the car fender.

However, the prosecutor rebutted that the injuries sustained by the accused were as a result of him scaling a fence during his escape and the damage to the policeman’s vehicle were those of gunshots discharged by Lekram while in the company of others during the escape.

Joseph also disclosed that investigators are presently working on other leads. However, no firearms have so far been retrieved.

Sohan asked for bail be granted, citing that his client is in need of immediate medical examinations. Bail was denied by the magistrate and a medical examination was ordered.

Lekram is set to return to court on January 4, for report.

The hunt continues for four other suspects.