Man wheeled in to court to testify

SPECIAL arrangements were made yesterday at the Port-of-Spain Fifth Criminal Court for a paralysed man to give evidence against the man who is alleged to have caused the injuries more than ten years ago. Khemraj Sonny, paralysed from the chest down, was yesterday brought to the Hall of Justice in an ambulance and wheeled into the court on a stretcher.  The accused Michael Maharaj, of Lange Park, Chaguanas, is before Madame Justice Joan Charles charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

The State’s case is that around 6.30 pm on November 25, 1993, Sonny was walking along Monroe Road in Cunupia, when a white Toyota Hiace van pulled up alongside him. The accused and three other men were in the van. The accused came out of the van, held Sonny by his collar and started beating him about the upper body. Maharaj then took a rope, tied up Sonny and dropped him in the tray of the van, before beating him on his left leg with a hammer. After the second blow, Sonny’s leg went numb. The men then went to the home of Maharaj’s mother-in-law and took him out of the van. Sonny, who was still tied up, fell and hit his head. Maharaj threatened to cut off some of his body parts. 

The rope was eventually loosened and a bucket of water was thrown on Sonny. Maharaj’s suggestion that they throw him in a nearby ravine was ignored, and he was instead taken to his sister Omatie Sonny’s home. Omatie’s husband assisted one of the men remove Sonny from the vehicle and he was then taken to the Chaguanas Health Centre. He was later transferred to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital, where he remained warded for more than eight months. Sonny gave a statement to Cpl David Sandy on November 27. Maharaj is being represented by attorneys Desmond Allum SC and Ravi Rajkoomar, while prosecutors Kathy Ann Waterman-Latchoo and Nizam Khan appear for the State.