Magistrate Priya Beharry yesterday remanded a University of Guyana (UG) student, who allegedly conspired with another man to obtain over $1.8M from the Mahaica Post Office, to prison when he appeared on felony charges at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.
Parmanand Singh, 28, of 51 Clonbrook, East Coast Demerara, pleaded not guilty to the charge.
He denied that between September 22 and December 23 last year, he conspired with a former employee of the Guyana Post Office Corporation (GPOC), Imran Khaleel, to steal the sum of $1, 860, 000 from Mahaica Post Office using falsified revenue vouchers.
The prosecution stated that Khaleel had taken Singh, who is his neighbour, to the GPOC over four times while a post master prepared the vouchers. They said that when the fraud was detected, Singh was arrested and later charged for the offence.
The prosecution had also stated that Singh should not be granted bail because he may not return to court for his trial. They noted that Khaleel may have already fled the country.
However, in his bail application attorney Adrian Thompson stated that Singh was never employed at any of the post offices. He noted that his client is currently a final year public management student at UG and he wouldn’t abandon his studies by fleeing the country. He went on to say that his client was prepared to lodge his passport and other travel documents at the police station. Thompson further stated that “conspiracy is not fraud” and that Singh knew nothing about the revenue vouchers.
He also noted that the police had no real evidence and that “just accompanying someone to the post office is not sufficient to say that he conspired to commit a felony.” Thompson added, “There is no evidence to implicate him in the plot.”
But the prosecution explained that Singh was charged due to advice they had received from the Director of Public Prosecution about the case. They also stated that vouchers were indeed paid to Singh.
They said that Singh had also admitted to them while he was at the police station that Khaleel offered him the money and he had accepted it. “The defendant is rightfully charged,” the prosecution added. They had also posited that Singh had signed and uplifted the payments that he was not entitled to.
The case has been transferred to the Mahaica Magistrate’s Court for August 20.
