Sascha Wil­son

A mag­is­trate yes­ter­day re­fused to re­mand a man charged with mur­der­ing a 70-year-old grand­moth­er to St Ann's Hos­pi­tal for a men­tal eval­u­a­tion for fear that he may go miss­ing.Ram­c­hand Dood­lal, 42, who ap­peared to be obliv­i­ous to what was hap­pen­ing around him, ap­peared be­fore Deputy Chief Mag­is­trate Mark Welling­ton in the San Fer­nan­do First Court. He is ac­cused of beat­ing Car­men Ram­jat­tan to death at her Sunkist Dri­ve, Palmiste home on Feb­ru­ary 21. The el­der­ly woman's body was found in the bath­room. Her hands and feet were bound with rope.

Af­ter the charge was read, Dood­lal's at­tor­ney Ja­son Jack­son asked the mag­is­trate to send his client to St Ann's hos­pi­tal for a psy­chi­atric eval­u­a­tion. Jack­son said he was on­ly able to get par­tial in­struc­tions from Dood­lal and his re­quest was based on his ob­ser­va­tions re­gard­ing Dood­lal's be­hav­iour."What I am afraid of is that they take him there and we can't find him," the mag­is­trate replied.

Jack­son said he has nev­er heard of any­thing like that hap­pen­ing at the hos­pi­tal."Mr Jack­son you liv­ing in Mars or some­thing," the mag­is­trate said. Told by Jack­son that he had sev­en years as a le­gal pro­fes­sion­al, the mag­is­trate said: "You are young in the busi­ness."Jack­son ar­gued that the Men­tal Health Act makes pro­vi­sions for ac­cused per­sons to be sent for men­tal eval­u­a­tion. He said an in­quiry should be launched in­to al­le­ga­tions that pa­tients go miss­ing at St Ann's hos­pi­tal. Still ask­ing that Dood­lal be sent to the hos­pi­tal, Jack­son said Dood­lal's name was called four times in court with no an­swer and he "keeps look­ing up to the sky." "I am not tak­ing that chance," Welling­ton said as he re­mand­ed him in­to cus­tody at Re­mand Yard, Gold­en Grove Prison, Arou­ca. The mat­ter was ad­journed to March 18.

Mean­while Clive Manic­hand, 57, ap­peared be­fore Siparia Mag­is­trate Joanne Con­nor charged with killing his com­mon-law wife. Manic­hand, un­em­ployed of Mooliesingh Street, Cedar Hill, Princes Town, is ac­cused of killing Kaloutie Roop­nar­ine. Roop­nar­ine died on Jan­u­ary 12 at the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal af­ter be­ing beat­en at her home last De­cem­ber.

The mat­ter was ad­journed to April 1.