Anjanie Boodnarine, the common-law wife of convicted drug trafficker Barry Dataram, was yesterday cleared of a charge that she forged a passport after a city magistrate found that there was insufficient evidence.
Boodnarine was charged with conspiring with others to commit a felony by forging a Republic of Guyana passport.
Magistrate Renita Singh yesterday upheld a no-case submission made by Boodnarine’s attorney, Glenn Hanoman.
During her ruling, she said that the charge of conspiracy required proof of its agreement expressed or implied, but in the prosecution’s evidence there was nothing to prove that there was an agreement or the making of one to forge a document.
Magistrate Singh noted that no witness testified that the defendant agreed to forge a passport nor was there evidence led that Christine Persaud, the name used on the passport, was someone different from the defendant. As a result, she said, there was doubt in relation to the charge of conspiracy against Boodnarine and also insufficient evidence and it was on these grounds that the charge against Boodnarine was dismissed.
The charge against Boodnarine stemmed from a forged passport being found in her possession after she and Dataram were held in Suriname.
Boodnarine is still before the court pending the outcome of a charge that she failed to present herself to an immigration officer when leaving the country. That matter is being heard at the Springlands Magistrate’s Court. She also faces a charge of attempting to defeat the administration of law, which is being heard by Magistrate Leron Daly in a city court.
