A 20-year-old East Canje, Berbice man was today unanimously found guilty of manslaughter at the High Court.
Davenand Dhadhari called Kevin, 20, of Betsy Ground Village, East Canje Berbice, who was represented by attorney at law, Mursaline Bacchus yesterday broke into tears when the verdict was read to him at the High Court in Berbice.
Dhadhari was accused of inflicting a fatal blow with a 2 by 4 piece of wood to the head of Omesh Seelall also known as Rovin, a labourer of Betsy Ground Village on April 17th 2016.
According to the defence, Seelall’s death was a result of self defence, since Dhadhari in his unsworn statement claimed that the labourer was approaching with him a Rambo knife and he became fearful for his life. In his statement, he said that after hitting Seelall he dropped the piece of wood and ran because he was afraid that Seelall’s friends would retaliate.
Dhadhari had said that earlier in the night Seelall was at a rumshop in the village, and when he walked in, Seelall said, “Look this fat antiman” to which he had responded, “You can only talk but can’t do anything”.
A shopkeeper in Betsy Ground Village had testified that she was picking up bottles from her parapet when she noticed Dhadhari standing next to a dray cart. She said she saw him picking up a piece of wood from the dray cart. According to the woman, she then looked to see who Dhadhari was going to hit and it was then that she saw Seelall, since he (Seelall) was facing her direction. She said, she saw Dhadhari hitting Seelall after which he dropped the piece of wood and ran away.
Sergeant Lawrence Thomas, who testified, claimed that the shopkeeper in her statement in 2016 had said that she could not see who Dhadhari struck due to the large crowd of people present at the time.
However, the shopkeeper in court during the trial stated that she could see and that she did not state otherwise in her initial statement.
Kishan Serojinie, who was imbibing at the shop on the night in question for over four hours testified that the shopkeeper was behind her counter selling.
He had said, that he had picked up Seelall and rushed him to the New Amsterdam Hospital. He noted, that during the journey he stopped at the Reliance Police Station and filed a report.
Dhadhari’s brother had also testified that when he rushed to the scene he saw a piece of wood and a Rambo knife lying next to Seelall’s body.
After the verdict was read, Dhadhari’s brother also began to cry loudly. The lad will return to court on September 12 for sentencing after a probation report is read.
