Dhanraj Singh charged with murder
May 6, 2001
Dhanraj Singh, now in prison, will be appearing in the San Fernando High Court to listen as his attorneys argue a constitutional motion filed on his behalf.
His time in court was brief, and Singh awaited the calling of his case, seated in the cell block with six other crime accused.
The Magistrate postponed the case to May 15.
Yesterday, Singh was again allowed to walk to court without handcuffs. His mother, father and wife were present.
February 20, 2001
The State is to grant immunity to murder accused Abdullah Mutageen in exchange for his testimony against former Local Government Minister Dhanraj Singh. Mutageen was charged with the murder of Sumairsingh. Most people suspected Mutadeen might have acted on the instructions of a Dhanraj Singh; a senior UNC minister whom the Prime Minister Basdeo Panday claimed was his best minister.
Dhanraj Singh was charged yesterday afternoon with the murder of Hansraj Sumairsingh.
Officers from the homicide squad arrived at his home and he promptly requested a telephone call to his attorney, Prakash Ramadhar.
After being charged, Singh was whisked over to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) on St Vincent Street.
Singh was charged with 27 counts of fraud arising from the operations of the Unemployment Relief Programme (URP). He is on $150,000 bail on those charges.
Dhanraj may appear in Court today then he would be remanded to appear in the Mayaro Magistrate's Court.
Sumairsingh, 45, of Tabaquite Road, Rio Claro, was found fatally shot at his beach house in Mayaro on Old Year's Day 1999.
Detectives involved in Sumairsingh's murder probe had previously interrogated Dhanraj Singh on three different occasions about this murder.
February 21, 2001
It is alleged that Singh, together with others, murdered the chairman of the Mayaro/Rio Claro Regional Corporation Hansraj Sumairsingh, sometime between December 29, 1999 and January 1 last year.
Sumairsingh's body was found with a bullet wound at his Eccles Road, Mayaro beach house.
Four months ago, Homicide detectives charged Jamaat-al-Muslimeen member Elliot "Abdullah" Hypolite with the murder of Sumairsingh and the case was set to continue in the Mayaro Magistrates Court today.
Hypolite has since agreed to testify on behalf of the State against Singh, and has been granted immunity from prosecution by Director of Public Prosecutions Mark Mohammed in exchange for his testimony.
The State is expected to discontinue its case against Hypolite when the matter is called today and he may be released from custody and placed in a State witness protection programme.
Singh, who was arrested at his Williamsville home on Monday, appeared a bit nervous but still maintained his boyish grin and mischievous laughter as he sat in the Port of Spain Eighth Court awaiting the arrival of Chief Magistrate Sherman McNicolls.
He appeared quite comfortable as he chatted and gesticulated with four other murder accused for about 20 minutes before his matter was called.
Attorney Shastri Prasad, who is appearing for Singh along with Prakash Ramadhar, asked that the matter be transferred to the Mayaro Magistrates Court for today.
Even though the prosecution objected to the matter being put to today because the complainant, Sgt Fitzgerald George, had an ongoing matter in the High Court and may not be able to attend court at Mayaro, McNicolls said "there is a connected matter in Mayaro tomorrow (today) and it would be prudent for this matter to be transferred".
Before Singh appeared yesterday, Prasad said his client was very upbeat and "confident that he will be found not guilty".
LETTER:
From: Jasper
I firmly believe no one man could have been reported to have done so much, for so long a time and gotten away with it, all by himself. Even when he was taken to court and lost in the matter involving Corporation head Jerry Narace, he just kept going and going, and he was the star of his cast. I only hope that he assists the authorities to the best of his abilities as he had asked us the population to do, when requested by the Prime Minister to "weed" out the criminals in URP. It is his turn to assist now to flush out criminals and no one should deny him his chance as he or anyone else is innocent until proven guilty. Other wise instead of our sympathy, it may very will be the state's 'cocoa tea'.
Royal jail for Dhanraj
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