Daughters among four charged with brutal murder of pensioner

The biological and adopted daughter of 64-year-old Roger Manikam whose gagged body was found along the Coldingen Railway Embankment, East Coast Demerara (ECD) were on Thursday jointly charged along with two other males for murder.

Manikam’s 12-year-old daughter, his 18-year-old daughter, Nalinie, her 24-year-old boyfriend Veeram Lall aka Adam Dias and his friend 23-year-old Devon Brown appeared at the Sparendaam Magistrate’s Court, ECD, for the indictable offence.

The four accused of the heinous crime were not required to plead to the charge when it was read to them by Magistrate Zameena Ali. The two sisters were remanded for murdering their 64-year-old father who they alleged had been sexually molesting them prior to his murder.

The 12-year-old adopted daughter of Manikam will be held at the Juvenile Detention Center in Sophia, Georgetown while the older daughter, Nalinie, will be held at the New Amsterdam Women Prison, Berbice, until their next court appearance which is scheduled for May 6.

According to the Prosecution, the now dead man’s daughters confessed to murdering him and stated that the plan was devised by Nalinie’s boyfriend, Lall.

On Saturday, last, the two girls allegedly lured their father into the kitchen of their Non Pariel home sometime late in the night. Nalinie is said to have allegedly chopped him with an axe.

The Prosecution elaborated that it was with Lall’s help that the two girls wrapped the body of their father in construction plastic and Lall’s friend, Brown, assisted in transporting the body from the Manikam’s residence.

They then dumped the body on the Railway Embankment at Coldingen, ECD.

Meanwhile, despite the claims of the man’s two daughters that he had been sexually molesting them, some relatives of Manikam have risen to his defense outside the Courts.

They are stating that the two girls carried out the act because they wanted the money he had obtained from the sale of a lumber yard he had owned previously.

When the man’s body was found and investigations commenced into the matter, the two daughters had initially claimed that their father might have been killed after being robbed. Then they suggested that he might have been returning home from one of his drinking sessions and that his girlfriend should be questioned about it.

However, the involvement of the girls in the man’s murder came to light  after police ranks who were investigating the incident found a piece of rope at the Non Pariel home of the man, which appeared to have been a part of the rope that had been used to tie him up.