A former supervisor of Boodhoo’s General Store at Parika who was previously charged with stealing over half a million dollars from her employer denied 52 additional charges amounting to over $3.5M when she appeared at the Leonora Magistrate’s Court yesterday.
Bibi Razack of Leonora, West Coast Demerara pleaded not guilty to 52 charges of obtaining money by false pretence and after strenuous submissions by her counsel, Moses Nagamootoo, the bail granted on the previous charges was rolled over to include the new cases.
On September 19, Razack had appeared at the Vreed-en-Hoop Magistrate’s Court to answer six charges of larceny by clerk which had amounted to $571,000 and had been granted bail in the sum of $50,000 by Magistrate Fazil Azeez.
The new charges allege that on various dates from January to December last year at Parika, she obtained from Omadai Kallop called Geeta, the cashier of Boodhoo’s General Store, various sums of money by falsely pretending that she needed the said sums to be used for payment of salary, property of Awad Boodhoo. The money, which amounted to $3,770,100 had allegedly been obtained on Saturdays throughout last year.
Nagamootoo in requesting bail stated that the charges were only allegations, declaring that over the years his client was a “loyal, trusted, loving employee” of the virtual complainant. He said that there was more to the case and it would come out during the trial adding that Razack’s photograph had appeared in the newspapers every day for two weeks. “The loyal employee has suddenly become an ogre”, the defence counsel asserted declaring that persons were trying to “damnify” his client and it was “trial of an employee through the press”. He stated that the case was a challenging one and urged that the bail granted in the previous matters be rolled over to include the new charges. He asserted that to increase bail would “feed the grisly mill” and give the impression that Razack was guilty noting that there is a presumption of innocence on her side. He said that there was a “link between his (the VC’s) books and the income tax books”.
Nagamootoo further submitted that his client had turned up at court even though she knew additional charges were filed and stated that she comes from an honourable family, is married and has a child. He said that she had no reason to escape from the trial.
The magistrate in making his decision stated that Razack’s passport would have to be handed over to the court but she said that she did not have a passport. The police prosecutor was mandated to verify this.
The matter will continue on November 8 at the Leonora Magistrate’s Court.
