Businessman cleared of 2016 Pearl vigilante killing

After spending the last four years on remand for murder, Moses Singh, a 63-year-old East Bank Demerara businessman, was on Thursday freed from the charge due to insufficient evidence.

Singh was discharged of the offence by City Magistrate Leron Daly who presided over the preliminary inquiry. He was represented by attorney Latchmie Rahamat.

In 2018, Singh was charged with the murder of 26-year-old Seon Clarke of Campbellville, Georgetown, which occurred on August 20, 2016, at Pearl, East Bank Demerara.

At the end of the Preliminary Inquiry, Rahamat made a no-case submission on the ground that there has been no evidence against her client.

The Magistrate upheld the no-case submission and discharged the capital offence of murder against Singh.

Clarke was shot and killed and his friend was beaten by residents at Pearl after the proprietor of a shop noticed two men acting suspiciously around his business.

The police had said in a statement that Clarke and his friend visited a grocery store and were allegedly behaving in a suspicious manner, prompting the owner of the business to run out to the road and raise an alarm.

A police officer, who was passing at the time, responded to the alert and the men escaped into the surrounding bushes, it added.

During a search, police said, two loud explosions were heard but the two men remained elusive and were not found until later that night on Pearl Public Road, by members of the community.

The statement said that Clarke was shot by a resident and his friend was beaten before they were handed over to the police.

The injured men were rushed to the Diamond Public Hospital where Clarke was pronounced dead and his friend was treated for minor injuries and then taken into police custody.