The two soldiers
charged with killing Guyana Defence Force (GDF) cadet
officer Amar Rajcumar were yesterday committed to stand
trial in the High Court after Magistrate
Priya Sewnarine-Beharry ruled that a prima facie
case had been made out against them.
Commissioned-Officers
Jagdeo
consoles Cadet’s family
Car
plunged
Christopher Harmon,
29, of 309 Parfait/Harmonie, West Bank Demerara and Kurt
Trotman, 30, of 541 Section A, Block 10, South Sophia had
first appeared at the Georgetown Magistrate's Court at the
end of May last year and were both remanded to prison on the
joint murder charge to which they had not been required to
plead. It had been alleged that on April 11 at Base Camp
Stephenson, Timehri, the duo murdered Rajcumar.
At the Providence
Magistrate's Court yesterday the magistrate ruled that a
case had been made out against the men and committed the duo
to stand trial for the offence in the High Court. The men
remained expressionless as she spoke and their counsel,
Compton Richardson in submissions "invited" the
magistrate to review her decision. When given the
opportunity to speak both the defendants denied committing
the offence while the defence counsel indicated to the court
that no witness was to be called on either of his clients'
behalf.
According to reports,
21-year-old Rajcumar who had joined the GDF a mere nine days
prior to his death collapsed after a training session. He
was a presidential guard for two years before joining the
army to pursue his ambition of becoming a GDF officer.
Following the cadet's death, the army in a release stated
that around 12:45 pm on April 11, the cadet officers were
involved in a physical-training session.
During the session
Rajcumar collapsed. He was immediately taken to the medical
centre on Base Camp Stephenson where the medic on duty
referred him to the Georgetown Hospital. He was pronounced
dead on arrival around 2:45 pm. A post-mortem conducted
found among other things that he died from a blow to the
head. As a result of the findings a Board of Inquiry was
launched to investigate the circumstances surrounding the
cadet's death and the charge had been laid after more than a
month of investigations and advice from the Director of
Public Prosecutions (DPP).
