25 years imprisonment for fishermen convicted of killing boat captain during 2017 piracy attack

Justice Navindra Singh on Monday sentenced two men to 25 years imprisonment for killing Corentyne boat captain, Mahadeo Ramdehol, also known as ‘Chico,’  during a piracy attack in 2017.

Last month Doodnauth Singh, 63, and Khemraj Narsayah, 44, both fishermen from Rose Hall, Corentyne, appeared at the Berbice High Court for the capital offence of murder but opted to plead guilty to the latter count of manslaughter.

The men admitted that on May 16, 2017, in the river between Tain Village and Rose Hall on the Corentyne foreshore, they murdered the 57-year-old boat captain during the act of piracy.

During the sentencing hearing the victim’s family gave their impact statements calling for justice to be served since they are still grieving over Ramdehol’s “gruesome” death.

“Papa meh a beg give me a second chance na,” Singh said to the Judge. Narsayah apologized to the victim’s family and said, “ meh na mean fuh them things happen.”

Justice Singh, while considering the nature of the case, sentenced them to 25 years imprisonment with time served on remand to be deducted.

According to reports, on the day in question about 18:30hrs, the duo, while being armed with a cutlass, went out into the Corentyne River, where they attacked the boat captain, and his two crewmen, Arjun Permaul and Parmanand Nandan.

After relieving the victims of some fish and their outboard engine, they chopped Ramdehol on the head with a cutlass and forced the victims to jump overboard.

Ramdehol’s body was found the following day near the Rose Hall foreshore. A post-mortem revealed that he had drowned.