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arrested by the Police in relation to a rape allegation, Minister of Local Governement and Regional Development, Nigel Dharamlall was placed on $1M station bail.

While confirming that an investigation was launched into the allegation, Police Headquarters on Monday said  Dharamlall was arrested after he presented himself to the Brickdam Police Station in Georgetown.

He was accompanied by his lawyer, Nigel Hughes.

Dharamlall was placed on bail after spending hours at the Police Station.

The politician proceeded on administrative leave this week in light of the allegations that he raped a 16-year-old schoolgirl in December 2022.

The allegation, which first surfaced last week on social media, has sparked public outrage with calls for Dharamlall to resign.

The child is now in the care of the Child Care and Protection Agency. The News Room understands that she has already submitted a detailed report on the alleged incident.

Dharamall has since denied the allegations.

Nigel Hughes after the damning allegations surfaced on social media last week.

Dharamlall proceeded on administrative leave this week in light of the allegations that he raped a 16-year-old schoolgirl in December 2022.

The child is now in the care of the Child Care and Protection Agency. The News Room understands that she has already submitted a detailed report on the alleged incident.

Dharamall has since denied the allegations. On Friday last, President Dr Irfaan Ali told the News Room that he has zero tolerance for anyone accused of or displaying such behaviour.

The Head of State also promised a thorough probe once an official complaint is made.

“As a government, we are committed to having any facts fully investigated as we hold dearly our girls and women in every community. And we will continue to do everything to ensure their safety and well-being,” President Ali had said.

fatally struck with a piece of wood on Saturday morning in front his Laing Avenue, Georgetown home, was allegedly killed because those who attacked him did not approve of his friendship with someone else, relatives said on Monday.

This resulted in a feud that had been ongoing for the past four years.

And even though he was allegedly threatened a number of times during this period, no action was taken.

The News Room spoke to Melissa Henry, an aunt of the dead man, and she related the events leading up to the murder.

“The morning of the incident, I was awoken by loud explosions coming from outside on the roadway. There was like bottles and stones and so being thrown to the roof of our premises,” Henry said.

To check what was going on, Henry said she ventured outside of her yard where she learnt of her niece being involved in a confrontation during which she was badly injured.

“It was like seven to eight of them and all of them had sharp tools, brick in them hands and so on. My nephew (Pyle) know them well…These people is problem. So he just turn to his sister, he hold her and grab her by her arm and he start to like push her back through the gate,” she explained.

“Just as he (Pyle) turn to push her, one of the guys pick up a wood and he just run in behind my nephew and dealt him a lash behind his head and he step back like one two times and he fall back,” Henry said.

Police Headquarters on Saturday said Pyle was killed while trying to part a fight between his two sisters and some other women in the neighbourhood.

It was alleged that the male partners of the other women also intervened and one of them, who was armed with a piece of wood, lashed Pyle to his head.

Pyle collapsed and the suspect then dropped the wood and he and the others began to pelt bottles and bricks before escaping.
According to Henry, Pyle and the suspects are known to each other.

She said while they had previously exchanged words, they never got physical.

Following the incident, the house of alleged killer was set on fire in Laing Avenue. It was completely destroyed.

Henry said her family has nothing to do with the fire.

“We have nothing to do with that…It may be looking like it coming from us, but we are not the only individual around here who and the suspect have something going on…We don’t have a hand in that,” she noted.

A post-mortem on Monday revealed that Pyle died as a result of a fractured skull.

Police are on the hunt for the 30-year-old suspect.

For those who knew him, Lieutenant Douglas impacted their lives in some way or the other and his legacy will forever live on.

Still trying to accept his death, Douglas’ sister Latoya said he was the backbone of his family.

“He was very much a family person, God fearing; in all a very wonderful soul. He was basically the backbone for the family,” Latoya reflected while being comforted by relatives.

“This is the hardest thing for anybody to deal with right now. It’s really hard,” she said.

For many of his colleagues and friends, Douglas was the intelligent one, who led by setting an example.

“He always been the peacemaker…He was a star. There can never be a replacement of Rondel Douglas,” Odessa Debarros, a former colleague shared.

Meanwhile, one of Douglas’ longtime friend, Eon Campbell, said he was a role model to him.

A viewing was held at the Lyken’s Funeral home ahead of the funeral service and burial.

“He was very articulate. He was probably one of the few persons I never heard spoke one word of broken English. We didn’t know…our path would have crossed and we would have gotten so deep,” Campbell said.

“Many times when we are in battles, even now and when I was a young teenager, I always asked myself, ‘If Rondel was in the situation what Rondel would have done?’

“That’s how I would actually come out of my own personal sorrows and troubles. By using Rondel as somewhat of an icon or a role model”.

Lieutenant Douglas was a husband and father.

The 33-year-old worked as a part time taxi driver. He was shot and killed on the evening on June 7 as he put up a fight with two men, one of whom posed as a customer and robbed him of his car.

Draped with a flag of Guyana, Lieutenant Douglas’ casket was hoisted out of the parlour and placed into the hearse as the funeral possession made its way to Stanleytown on the West Bank of Demerara for a funeral service followed by burial at La Grange cemetery, West Bank Demerara.

Rondel Douglas, was remanded to prison on Monday.

Wright appeared before acting Chief Magistrate Sherdel-Isaaca Marcus at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court.

When the Magistrate asked him for a response to the charges, he said: “I don’t wish to waste the court time so I would just like to enter a guilty plea even though I didn’t kill nobody; I never know they was going to kill nobody I just dropped them off.”

It was alleged that Wright, 37, on 7th June, 2023, at Cul-de-Sac Street, North Ruimveldt, Georgetown murdered GDF Captain Douglas. He was not required to enter a plea to the capital offence of murder.

The defendant was remanded to prison and he is expected to make his next court appearance on 14th July, 2023.

Joshua Parris, the prime suspect in the case, was last Thursday remanded to prison after he was charged with the crime.

 

 

legality of the Natural Resource Fund (NRF) Act.

The case was brought by Opposition Chief Whip Christopher Jones and trade unionist Norris Whitter. On Monday, Justice Singh dismissed the case and awarded $250,000 in costs to each defendant against each claimant. These are to be paid on or before July 19, 2023.

And Nandlall said enforcement measures to get these sums owed have now become necessary.

“I now have a pile of them because it is a series of cases that have been filed by the Opposition and all have been lost… from the Elections petition come right down.

“I mean when you file these frivolous, vexatious matters and the court expresses its displeasure in orders for costs, it must be paid,” Nandlall said.

Asked what measures can be taken to get the monies owed, the Attorney General said one option includes the seizure of the claimants’ movable and immovable assets.

He also noted that those who fail to pay can be imprisoned if it can be proven that they are able to pay the costs but are deliberately deflecting.

A third option, Nandlall said, is to engage those persons’ employers and get the sums owed.

Importantly, the Attorney General said he has been engaging members of the opposition on paying the monies owed to no avail.

Nandlall reminded reporters that in March, he wrote to the eight suspended Opposition Members of Parliament who were involved in the seizure of the Speaker’s Mace and parliamentary disruptions and lawyer Roysdale Forde after the High Court refused to overturn their suspension.

He pointed out then that more than a month after the due date, the costs awarded are yet to be paid. The eight MPs were ordered to pay costs to the respondents in the sum of $350, 000 each by February 06, 2023.

Nandlall on Monday said those sums have still not been paid.

“I have written letters of demand as I am required to do and those have been ignored,” he lamented.