-suspect charged

A 17-year-old girl of Auchlyne, Corentyne ingested a poisonous substance and died after a man allegedly raped her three Sundays ago and threatened that he would return to kill her.

Dead is Cindy Mahadeo who was alone at home when the alleged incident occurred around 10 am. According to reports, after the man committed the act, he told her he would return at 1 pm to kill her and she fearfully ingested the poisonous substance and subsequently sent a text message to a cousin informing her that she had drunk poison. Mahadeo was rushed to the New Amsterdam Hospital where she was admitted as a patient. She died on Thursday last.

Cindy Mahadeo

On Friday, Premnauth Sugrim, said to be in his late 30s, was charged with rape at the Springlands Magistrate’s Court.
Sugrim had been arrested and released just after the incident but after Mahadeo died he was rearrested and charged.
Police Prosecutor, Sergeant Michael Grant, objected to bail on the grounds of the seriousness and prevalence of the offence and the fact that the defendant and the victim’s family live in the same area. However, Magistrate Krishndat Persaud placed the man on $150,000 bail.

Meanwhile, Stabroek News was told that when relatives got the news that Mahadeo had ingested poison and rushed over to her house they found her in a hammock vomiting. Relatives said they tried to question the girl about her reason for drinking the poison but she was apparently too “shame fuh tell we.” She later told the doctors about the alleged rape and the information was passed on to relatives.

Mahadeo later related to her mother, Algama Mahadeo, a domestic worker that her assailant had asked her for a drink of water and when she went into the kitchen to get it, he followed her, threw her on the floor and performed the act.

The girl told her mother that she fought him and gave him several scratches on his neck and he slapped her.
He also warned her not to tell anyone and even threatened that he would return at 1 pm to kill her. “After he tell she that she get scared and she drink the poison before one o’clock,” Ramdass told this newspaper yesterday.

Ramdass said she had made arrangements with the accused to renovate her kitchen and he was supposed to return in two weeks to start the work. “But he come before the two weeks and he know that me won’t a be home then,” she said.
Mahadeo who dropped out of school two years ago after her father died was the second of three children.