Labourer freed of murder of Cane Grove farmer
Ramesh Persaud, the labourer who had been accused of the 2017 killing of Cane Grove, Mahaica farmer Harrynarine Ramnawaj, has been acquitted of the offence.
Following deliberations on Thursday, a jury found Persaud not guilty of the manslaughter charge which had been levelled against him.
The trial had been heard at the High Court in Demerara, before Justice Priya Sewnarine-Beharry.
Persaud was accused of chopping Ramnawaj to death on October 15th, 2017 during a confrontation over the use of land at Cane Grove Backdam, Mahaica.
The police had said in a statement that the then 27-year-old farmer and his father Chanderpaul Ramnawaj, of Lot 25 Estate Road, Cane Grove, were at their farm when they noticed that a few banana plants had been damaged and a wooden structure erected.
This prompted an investigation by the father and son who found the accused in the wooden structure.
As a result, Harrynarine confronted the accused and an argument ensued, during which the suspect dealt the man and his father several chops.
Totaram Birbal, a relative of the two men, had told Stabroek News that around midday on October 15, he received a telephone call from Harrynarine informing him that they had been attacked and needed to get medical treatment.
“He call me and said come pick we up at the farm, that them get chop up and he feel like he gon’ faint… I went right away… he had a chop to his hand and he was crying out for back pain, while we were going to the hospital,” Birbal had recounted.
He said that at the time of the chopping, the accused along with a son and the man who they built the wooden structure for were drinking alcohol.
He said that after Harrynarine was attacked, the accused launched
an attack on Chanderpaul and escaped. He was later apprehended.
The state’s case had been led by prosecutor Caressa Henry.
Meanwhile, Persaud was represented by defence attorney Adrian Thompson.