A 60-year-old businesswoman and a 38-year-old businessman, who allegedly received two stolen passports, were each placed on $125,000 bail when they appeared at the Georgetown Magis-trate’s Court yesterday.
Bibi Rahaman, called Dolly, of 57 Republic Park, East Bank Demerara and Chabiraj Ragnauth, called Vishal, of ‘D’ 58 Success Public Road, East Coast Demerara pleaded not guilty to the charge of receiving stolen property.
It is alleged that on July 15 at James Street, Albouystown, Georgetown, Rahaman and Ragnauth received two blank Republic of Guyana Passports, numbers 1142353 and 1142368, property of the Government of Guyana knowing them to be stolen. The passports are worth $2,000.
Rahaman’s attorney told the court that his client was in charge of a motor spares store and has been in police custody since Monday. According to the lawyer, “if they [the two accused] are guilty then they are stupid” because both the passports are old passports that are currently being replaced by the machine-readable versions.
Vic Puran entered an appearance for Ragnauth. Puran informed the court that his client was a father of four and he seconded the other attorney’s application for bail to be granted in a reasonable sum.
The prosecution offered no objection to the attorneys’ applications for bail and informed the court that the passports were in police custody.
Principal Magistrate (ag) Melissa Robertson-Ogle granted each accused bail in the sum of $125,000. The matter was transferred to Court Five for August 11.
