(Trinidad Express) – A ten-year-old is being treated at hospital after her mother allegedly burnt her hand in a hot pot of rice.
Twenty-three-year-old housewife Beena Ramoutar pleaded not guilty to the charge that she maliciously inflicted grievous bodily harm to her daughter Leeandra Khan.
Khan is a patient of the San Fernando General Hospital, police prosecutor Joey Samaroo told the First Magistrate’s Court Deputy Chief Magistrate Mark Wellington.
The alleged incident happened at Lady Hailes Avenue, Embacadere on Tuesday. The charge was laid by WPC Shirley Matthews of the San Fernando Police Station.
Ramoutar’s lawyer Subhas Panday asked for bail for his client, but he was torn over the alleged incident. “These are the kinds of cases that, as an attorney, you find yourself in a tight position. You have a duty to the court and also to society,” he said.
Leeandra lives with her father but was staying with Ramoutar, her husband and children while her father worked.
“He is a fisherman and when he goes out to fish, the child stays with her mother,” Samaroo said.
Arrangements are to be made for the child’s grandmother to be the caretaker while the father is away, the court heard. Ramoutar was granted $15,000 bail.
A cash alternative of $10,000 was also granted. The matter was transferred to the Fourth Court for next week Wednesday.
The case is similar to one a year ago when Roxanne Williams allegedly placed the hand of her 12-year-old step-sister Elizabeth Kawal over a lighted stove at their Bayshore Road, Marabella, home. Kawal is autistic.
Williams is on $35,000 bail for the offence. The trial was set to start on Tuesday but Kawal was said to be unwell as she was experiencing arthritic pain.
