Canecutter admits to killing neighbour

A CANECUTTER accused of murdering his neighbour had previously saved his victim from committing suicide, a High Court judge heard yesterday. This was revealed by Prakash Ramadhar in a plea for leniency on behalf of Sookraj Deodathsingh before Justice Mark Mohammed in the San Fernando Third Criminal Assizes. “The deceased was suicidal. He told his wife he was going to drink poison on San Fernando Hill, and you know who went for him? The accused,” Ramadhar told the court. Ramadhar also submitted to the court a petition with 657 signatures from villagers of Hardbargain, Williamsville, bearing testimony to Deodathsingh’s good character. “ He has accepted that he must pay for what he has done. But the price he must pay for protecting his family is very high,” Ramadhar told the judge.

Deodathsingh fatally chopped Ashook Rajaram one night when Rajaram broke into his home at Sieunarine Trace, Harbargain. Two weeks ago, Deodathsingh pleaded guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter and State attorney Brambhanan Dubay accepted the plea. According to State’s evidence, Rajaram broke into Deodathsingh’s house with a six-inch penknife and gloves in his pocket, around 2.30 am on October 13, 2001. When Deodathsingh saw the intruder, he pulled out a cutlass from under his mattress and began to struggle with him. Rajaram fell down the steps, and the accused dealt him 11 chops to his body, which caused his eventual death. Ramadhar said his client did not know the identity of the victim until Deodathsingh’s wife turned on the lights in the house. “He was just acting like a robot in trying to defend his family,” Ramadhar said. “This accused weeps every time I visit him in prison and in court. He wishes he could turn back the clock.”

The attorney also revealed that sometime before the incident, Deodathsingh’s teenaged daughter had an affair with the deceased against her parents’ wishes. The girl subsequently returned home and Deodathsingh forgave her. The girl was asleep at her parents’ home on the night Rajaram was chopped. “The motive might seem like a vengeful killing, but from the scenario that night it does not seem that way,” Ramadhar said. Justice Mohammed said he needed time to consider the case and adjourned sentencing to next week Friday.