East Berbice pensioner Rishee Lakhraj of Grant 1803 Crabwood Creek, Upper Corentyne was on Thursday arraigned before Springlands Magistrate Rabindranauth Singh on the capital charge of murder.
Unrepresented by legal counsel, the 62-year-old was not required to plead to the
charge, which detailed that between May 5 and 8, at Crabwood Creek, he murdered his 55-year-old wife Charmoney Charlie, called “Peelo”.
Lakhraj was subsequently remanded until his next court appearance, set for June 5 before the Chief Magistrate in Georgetown, who will reassign the case to the Upper Corentyne Magisterial District.
Recap
Lakhraj and his wife were reportedly involved in a heated argument on May 5 at about 23:00h, and he is alleged to have inflicted a stab wound to the woman’s abdomen. However, the woman reportedly told relatives and nurses at the Skeldon Hospital that her wound had been self-inflicted. Following her death three days later, Lakhraj was taken into custody.
He told investigators on Wednesday that he and Charlie had been imbibing
Rishee Lakhraj
alcohol in their bedroom when a misunderstanding arose and he collected a knife from the kitchen and stabbed her once to the abdomen. He said that after Charlie complained of experiencing pain, he was going to take his own life, but she convinced him not to so do. She then agreed to say that her wound was self-inflicted.
An autopsy performed on the woman’s remains last Friday by Government Pathologist Dr Vivekanand Bridgemohan gave the cause of her death as acute peritonitis and stab wound to the abdomen.
