Two in court for medical student’s murder

TWO YOUNG men were yesterday brought to the Tunapuna Magistrates’ Court charged with the murder of 18-year-old medical student Mark Rattan. Appearing in the Fourth Court before Magistrate Alicia Chanka were 19-year-old Christopher James of Building 12, Maloney; and 18-year-old Keith Bryan Thomas of Spring Valley, Mt D’or, Champ Fleurs. The charge of murder was laid indictably against the two unemployed men. Court prosecutor Cpl Alexander asked that the complainant, Cpl Eric Parks, be excused from the matter as he was called away on an urgent matter. Mark, the son of Dr Dipchand Rattan of Ridgewood Terrace, Santa Margarita, St Augustine, was allegedly murdered by the two men who abducted him in his Toyota Rav 4 outside the Royal Castle outlet in Curepe. Rattan sustained several stab wounds to the body and was beaten before his body was dumped near the Caura Hospital in a drain.

James and Thomas were later arrested when the stolen Rav 4 they were driving crashed into a lamp-post on the Churchill Roosevelt Highway near the Maloney Post Office. James and Thomas appeared unrepresented and Chanka asked if they would be applying for Legal Aid. Thomas said he intended to apply for Legal Aid, but then attempted to explain what happened with Mark Rattan. Thomas was quickly stopped by Chanka who said, “I do not need to hear anything.” James said attorney-at-law Kenneth Thompson was representing him, but Thompson was not present at the hearing. James then told the magistrate that he had nothing to do with the murder of Mark Rattan. “I never had the chance to kill some body in my life. Keith is the one who kill the man. That night I had no intention of killing anyone. They pick me up by my home. This injury on my shoulder, I was stabbed by my girlfriend,” said James. Both men were remanded into custody, and hearing resumes on January 4.