Guyanese authorities awaiting extradition hearing

…murder victim’s U.S. papers were being processed at the time of his death

Two days after the New York Daily News reported that the alleged mastermind behind the November 2016 Corentyne murder, Marcus Brian Bisram, was nabbed in New York, Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum has indicated that the Guyana Police Force is yet to be formally informed about the arrest.

Blanhum told Guyana Times International that while they had previously submitted a formal extradition request along with the relevant documents for the suspect to be brought to Guyana for trial, the United States (US) authorities are yet to confirm the arrest.

Nevertheless, going forward, the Head of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) explained that they will have to await the extradition hearing, during which it will have to be proven in court that Guyana has sufficient evidence against the overseas-based Guyanese to warrant an extradition.

Bisram, 28, was charged in absentia in November last for the murder of 26-year-old Faiyaz Narinedatt, a carpenter, who was killed on November 1, 2016, at Number 70 Village, Corentyne, Berbice.

The overseas-based Guyanese philanthropist/businessman allegedly ordered four of his allies to kill the father of two, who had rejected his (Bisram’s) sexual advances. It was reported that Narinedatt had choked and slapped the businessman.

The carpenter’s battered body was subsequently found at a staged hit-and-run accident scene. Independent investigations done by the dead man’s family uncovered the gruesome crime, and as such, Police arrested the four suspects, who then confessed that Bisram had ordered them to commit the killing.

By that time however, Bisram had already returned to the US and the Guyana Police Force has since been trying to have him extradited to face trial. To this end, local law enforcement last November issued a wanted bulletin for the businessman and subsequently contacted its overseas counterparts for assistance in locating the suspect.

The International Criminal Police Organisation (INTERPOL) subsequently issued a wanted bulletin for Bisram. The Interpol ‘red notice’ urged persons in the United States to contact the nearest Police Station or 911 once the wanted man is sighted. After no response, Guyana then reissued a fugitive warrant for Bisram in March of this year.

This newspaper that despite Bisram being a fugitive wanted for murder on Interpol, he has been roaming freely in New York for the past eight months. That is until Tuesday when the New York Police Department (NYPD)/US Marshals Joint Fugitive Task Force nabbed him from his beachfront home in Arverne, Queens sometime around 13:00h.

The following day, he appeared before a Judge at the Brooklyn Federal Court on Wednesday, who ruled that the businessman be held without bail until his extradition hearing. That date has been scheduled for July 13.

Outside the courthouse, Narinedatt’s widow Pooja Pitam told a CBS New York reporter that it was hard to see the man who ordered the hit on her husband. The grieving woman, who shares two children with the carpenter, said her husband never got to see his now one-year-old daughter. At the time of his death, Narinedatt was awaiting his papers to process to join his family in the Bronx.

Bisram was the sixth person charged with the murder of the carpenter. He was charged along with his 39-year-old bodyguard Orlando Dickie of Stevedore Housing Scheme, Georgetown.

A few days prior, four other persons were charged for the carpenter’s murder. They were 39-year-old Radesh Motie, an excavator operator of Lot 124 Number 74 Village; 49-year-old Harripaul Parsram of Lot 164 Number 71 Village; 18-year-old Deodatt Dutt of Lot 98 Number 71 Village; and 37-year-old Nirone Yacoob, a hire car driver of Lot 65 Number 67 Village, Corentyne.

Two of the accused had confessed to investigators that they were ordered by the overseas-based Guyanese businessman to kill Narinedatt, after which they dumped his body on the Number 70 Public Road to make it seem as a hit-and-run accident.

Additionally, the businessman’s mother and her daughter were also charged and remanded to prison after they offered bribes to Police ranks to “duck the case”.

Shinella Indarally, 45, and Mary Anne Lionel, 25, both of Lot 171 Section B Number 71 Village, Corentyne, were charged for deliberately attempting to obstruct the course of justice. It was reported that they offered a Police Corporal G$4 million to release the four men who were detained for murder and to also forfeit efforts to apprehend Bisram.

A few hours after the body was discovered, it is alleged that the mastermind, Marcus Bisram, had gone to the Springlands Police Station and allegedly offered to pay the two officers. A Constable and a Corporal were arrested and placed under close arrest on those allegations.