SASCHA WIL­SON

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

Rishi Moti­lal has ap­peared in court charged with the mur­der of his es­tranged com­mon-law wife and his 14-month-old ba­by.

The 29-year-old con­struc­tion work­er was de­nied bail af­ter ap­pear­ing be­fore Mas­ter Shabi­ki Caz­abon in the South Court charged with the mur­ders of his ba­by girl, Sher­maya Ja­da Moti­lal, and her moth­er, 34-year-old Tara Ram­sa­roop, on Oc­to­ber 8.

The moth­er and daugh­ter were al­leged­ly mur­dered at a house at Rochard Road, Bar­rack­pore.

Ram­sa­roop al­so had an eight-year-old boy but he was in school at the time of the mur­ders. She al­so had two old­er chil­dren who did not live with her.

An au­top­sy re­vealed that ba­by Sher­maya was chopped across her neck while her moth­er was chopped about her body.

It is al­leged that the sus­pect al­so burnt a ve­hi­cle val­ued at $45,000 at Ram­sub­ad Road in Bar­rack­pore.

Moti­lal was ar­rest­ed some­time af­ter the mur­ders on Tues­day and charged by the po­lice on Thurs­day on the ad­vice of Deputy DPP Sab­ri­na Jaglal.

He was not called up­on to en­ter a plea to the mur­der of­fences or the ma­li­cious dam­age charge.

PC Jag­ger­nauth, who rep­re­sent­ed the pros­e­cu­tion, said the file com­prised 12 state­ments, but 13 state­ments were still out­stand­ing.

Mas­ter Caz­abon or­dered that the file be sent to the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions by Jan­u­ary 10 for a State at­tor­ney to be ap­point­ed. A suf­fi­cien­cy hear­ing was ten­ta­tive­ly set for Oc­to­ber 7. How­ev­er, the ac­cused is ex­pect­ed to reap­pear be­fore the court on Jan­u­ary 10 to in­di­cate whether he has se­cured an at­tor­ney to rep­re­sent him.

Mean­while, a dou­ble fu­ner­al ser­vice will be held to­day for Ram­sa­roop and ba­by Sher­maya at their home in GP Road, Bar­rack­pore.