Teen freed of attempted murder charge

A CHAGUANAS teenager was yesterday freed of an attempted murder charge because the victim had “put the incident behind him,” and refused to testify. Sitting in the Port-of-Spain Fifth Criminal Court, Justice Anthony Carmona instructed the jury to return a not guilty verdict in favour of Ryan Seegulam, when the State, represented by attorney Nadia James, indicated that in light of the victim’s decision, it could offer no evidence.

When victim Ravi Ramai was earlier called on to testify, he said he no longer wished to give evidence against his former schoolmate because the incident had occurred when they were young, and that mistakes happen. Seegulam had allegedly stab-bed Ramai in the chest on September 22 2002, on the Cha-guanas Senior Secondary School compound, where both were students at the time.The two were 15 years old at the time.