One day after confessing to the murder of 69-year-old Pitamber Sharma, a truck driver attached to BK International, his colleague, 49-year-old Michael Sooklall, has been charged for the crime.
This is according to Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum, who has said the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has recommended that Sooklall be charged with the capital offence.
Dead: Pitamber Sharma
Sooklall is, as such, expected to be arraigned in the Georgetown Magistrates Courts.
In his confession, Sooklall, a manager at BK Quarry and resident of Perth Village, Essequibo Coast, told detectives that, on the night in question, he and Sharma had had a misunderstanding after Sharma had accused him of not taking care of the mandir as the caretaker.
Sharma had then threatened to report the issue to the boss in order to have Sooklalll replaced.
This reportedly angered Sooklall, and he retaliated by choking Sharma until Sharma became lifeless. After committing the act, he dragged the body and threw it into the Mazaruni River.
In addition, the suspect took an Inspector of Police and other ranks to the scene, and showed them where the body was thrown.
It was reported that the lifeless body of Sharma, of Independence Street, La Grange, West Bank Demerara (WBD), was last Thursday pulled from the Mazaruni River. Police reports stated that Sharma had last been seen alive at about 18:00h on March 30, but the next morning at about 07:30h, a security guard saw his body floating in the river.
Police had initially stated that Sharma might have drowned, but a post-mortem examination conducted on his remains gave the cause of death as manual strangulation.
