Gardener denies trying to choke teenaged girl to death

Eugesh Sookhoo, the man accused of attempting to choke to death Tortuga teenager Tishura Chinnia yesterday took the witness stand and denied committing the crime.

Sookhoo, a gardener of Cedar Hill Road, Tortuga, was called by his attorney Ian Gray to testify before the jury and Justice Melville Baird in the San Fernando First Criminal Assizes. The accused told the court that on the day of the incident,  February 11, 2001, the victim’s father and employer, Holly Chinnia, told him around 8 am that he was leaving to attend church. The accused said that he had been working with Chinnia approximately two years before the incident. His job was to spray, cutlass and weed crops. Sookhoo said three days after the incident of which he stands accused, he had visited the Gran Couva Police Station with his two brothers to report that he was beaten up by six men, when Cpl Best told him that he was under arrest. Sookhoo told the court: “He just drag me aside and tell my two brothers to go home. I was later charged with this offence.”

Under cross examination from State Prosecutor Narissa Ramsundar, the accused said that he lived some 200 feet away from the Chinnia’s house and had a good relationship with the Chinnias, but remained at home the day of the incident. When Ramsundar put to Sookhoo that it was he that choked Chinnia, fought her in the house and bit her about her body the accused replied: “I knows nothing about that ma’am.” The case continues on Monday.