Protest erupts over life sentence imposed on man convicted on felonious wounding charge

Days after 33-year-old Ganesh Dhanraj, also known as “Jango,” has had a life sentence imposed on him by Justice Navindra Singh, following his conviction for felonious wounding, protest erupted in front of the High Court on Thursday with his family members and friends calling for the sentence to be revisited.
Dhanraj has been convicted of the December 26, 2014 wounding of 20-year-old Clinton Babooram, which had left Babooram hospitalised, traumatised, and bedridden for weeks.

Initially charged with attempted murder, a jury found Dhanraj guilty of the lesser count of felonious wounding, and Justice Singh began his sentencing with a base of 30 years’ incarceration for the crime.
The court imposed additional time for specific aggravating factors. Four years were added to the base because Dhanraj had attempted to mislead the court by providing a false defence, and another five years were added because of the senseless and cruel nature of the attack.
Dhanraj has thus been sentenced to 39 years’ imprisonment for the offence,
in addition to which the judge has ordered that he should receive four strokes of the whip.

Recap
In an incident that took place outside a rum shop near Babooram’s home in Montrose, ECD on December 26, 2014, Dhanraj had, with neither provocation nor warning, approached Babooram and stabbed him in the groin with a knife before making good his escape.
The injury inflicted on Babooram had been severe. A critical area containing major blood vessels had been targeted, and medical experts had testified that it could have resulted in death, had Babooram not received immediate treatment.

Protest
At the protest line before the High Court on Thursday, December 19, 2024, the tears of Dhanraj’s mother flowed profusely, and a family friend related that there comes a time in everyone’s life when they make mistakes. People should be forgiven for their shortcomings, the friend advocated, insinuating that Dhanraj should be freed.
“How can justice be served with all these years in prison? We want justice for Jango! We want to preserve his life in prison! We all make mistakes in life, and I don’t think somebody should serve the rest of their life in prison! People who commit crimes, that thief, get five years or 10 years; but this guy does a wounding charge and gets life imprisonment!” the impassioned friend declared.
Another point raised by the protestors was that no medical records or statements that would be crucial to the case were found.
“For an incident that happened 10 years ago; for a wounding charge, no medical records or statements were found from Jango! Everything disappeared! Come on, people! they can’t do anything! They can’t find the medical records, the statements! Everything disappeared! Yeah! That guy was trying to defend himself – eh? – and he got life in prison for doing that! So now you’ve got a lot of people who want to kill you,” another protester declared.
Self-defense was also a hot topic of the protesters on the streets.
“You can’t defend yourself! When you defend yourself, you’re getting life in prison, man! When he tried to defend himself, he got life in prison, man! I tell you! Money talks! No justice for the poor! The man in there, the man’s strong! We don’t have money like all the threats that they make! They make sure they do it! Yeah! They spend threats before they spend money!”
The protesters also claimed that Dhanraj continues to receive death threats.
“They say if he doesn’t go to jail, they’re going to kill him,” a relative stated.
In this regard, the protestors are called for Jango to be protected even as they remain adamant that the sentence has been too harsh, and should be revisited by the court.
They have also made known their intention to file an appeal to quash the decision of Justice Singh.