Agricola man appeals 80-year jail time for murder of taxi driver

An Agricola, East Bank Demerara resident who was sentenced to 80 years’ imprisonment back in 2015 is challenging his conviction and jail term at the Court of Appeal. Following a trial before Justice Navindra Singh at the High Court in Demerara, Balram Singh, 50, was found guilty of the January 2010 murder of taxi driver, Bhomeshwar Sukhdeo. Balram Singh subsequently filed an appeal.

Following a Case Management Conference (CMC) on Friday, the Appeal Court announced that it will commence hearing arguments in the case on January 25, 2021, at 9 am. Attorneys-at-Law Nigel Hughes and Ronald Daniels are appearing for the murder convict. State Counsel Diana Kaulesar-O’Brien is appearing for the prosecution. The appeal will be heard by the Chancellor of the Judiciary Yonette Cummings-Edwards and Justices of Appeal Rishi Persaud and Dawn Gregory.
Media reports are that Sukhdeo was killed between January 19 and January 27, 2010.  He was kidnapped and robbed of his vehicle. His charred remains were discovered in Mocha, East Bank Demerara (EBD), days after he had gone missing. He was reportedly shot to the head and his body burnt. After he was convicted, an expressionless Balram Singh maintained that he had not murdered anybody.

In a caution statement given to the Police by Balram Singh, he admitted that he and an associate murdered the father of two. He told detectives that his associate shot Sukhdeo to the left side of the neck with a .38 revolver and later dumped his body. The convict related that on January 19, 2020, he and his associate went to Georgetown. He said that while he waited, his associated returned in a white car driven by Sukhdeo.
According to the caution statement, they then drove to Agricola where Bhomeshwar Sukhdeo was told to stop. It was then Singh said his associate pulled out a gun from a haversack he was carrying and shot Sukhdeo to the head. They then drove the dead man’s vehicle to Eccles, EBD, where they dumped his body in the bushes. They later retrieved the body from Eccles and took it to Mocha where they dumped it.