Ruby businessman’s murder: Daughter denies hatching plot to kill father

During her unsworn testimony, which lasted for almost three hours, Bibi Nazeela Habiboodean denied hatching a plot to kill her 76-year-old father. Linden Lewis, called “Bullet” and Bibi are presently on trial before Justice Sandil Kissoon and a jury for the February 2008 murder of her father, Habiboodean.

When the trial continued on Monday at the Demerara High Court, Bibi continued leading her defence during which her lawyer, Roger Yearwood, asked her a series of questions.
“Did you at any time tell this accused [Lewis] that you would give him $6 million, house, land, and car fuh done your father?” Yearwood asked his client. She replied, “No counsel, I never said that.”
Asked by Yearwood if she knew her co-accused before the court matter, the woman said that she first saw him at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Headquarters, Eve Leary, Georgetown.
The lawyer further asked his client if Police Inspector Devon Lowe had given her Lewis’ statement to read. She responded, “He never gave me no statement counsel.”

Yearwood then asked her, “When your father received his injuries on February 14, 2008, did [Lewis] come to you and ask you for his $6 million, house, land, and car that you promise him?” Bibi retorted “No”.
“No counsel,” she said in response to Yearwood’s question, “Did you ever tell him that you were going to go by the bank and then you give him $5000?”
Questioned by Yearwood, “Were you in any way involved in the death of your father?” Bibi answered, “Sir, I never do that sir.” He further inquired from her if the Police held a confrontation between her and her co-accused. “No, counsel,” the woman said.
At a previous hearing, Inspector Lowe testified about an interview he and other detectives had with Lewis at the CID Headquarters. Lowe had said Lewis related that Bibi promised him $6 million along with a piece of land, house, and a car to kill her father.
Bibi wanted her father dead because, unlike her other siblings, she did not get any of his assets, the Police witness said as he recalled what Lewis disclosed during the interview.

Inspector’s testimony
“He alone [Habiboodean] went sitting down in a chair, and he ask me what I doing in the house and I tell he he daughter send me to kill him. Then I start fuh cuff he up on he neck, chest and belly, and he stop move,” Inspector Lowe said, as he recounted what Lewis had told investigators.

Inspector Lowe said Lewis told him that after he had killed the man, he asked Bibi about his $6 million payment and the other items she promised him, but she told him that she had to go to the bank. According to the Police Inspector, Lewis related that the woman only paid him $5000.
The murder accused told Police ranks that shortly after, a man by the name of “John” gave him another $5000 and told him to go away in the “bush”, and that everything would be okay upon his return.
The Police witness said Lewis told him, “So I guh way to Puruni Backdam. Two years after I come back, I hear the matter finish, and I ask John what happened to my car, my money and house and land, and he tell me the money done on lawyer and tuck shop, and I ain’t got nothing to get. That was it, and I never ask back for anything, and I never see back the woman.”
“Dem take advantage of me, cause I deh young and didn’t thinking straight. I even hear my uncle Michael get $7 million from [Bibi] for this same wuk. I did lash [her] father in he head with a wood, and I throw away the wood at the back of the yard,” Lewis said in the statement.
Media reports state that the Ruby, East Bank Essequibo (EBE) businessman was murdered between February 14 and 15, 2008. According to reports, the elderly man died after he was badly beaten at his home. The businessman’s widow and one of his employees were initially charged with his murder.
However, owing to insufficient evidence, the case against them was thrown out at the end of a Preliminary Inquiry. The murder of the pensioner went cold for several years until 2016 when Police received new leads which led to the arrest of his daughter and the alleged hitman.
Bibi and Lewis have pleaded not guilty to the joint murder charge. Attorney-at-Law Latchmie Rahamat is appearing for the latter, while the case for the prosecution is being led by Senior State Counsel Lisa Cave.
This trial continues today. (g1)