Guyana Chronicle
March 13, 2001

THE start of the preliminary inquiry (PI) into the charge surrounding the stabbing of an aircraft pilot on a domestic flight was again postponed yesterday.

The accused, Chronicle Reporter Sharon Lall, the Prosecutor, Inspector Christopher Griffith and the two virtual complainants, Yacoob Mazaharally (Jnr) and Vidya Gooray were present but the Defence Counsel were absent.

Magistrate Oscar Parvatan, sitting at Vreed-en-Hoop Court, West bank Demerara, refused to proceed in the absence of attorney-at-law Mr Khemraj Ramjattan, who is representing Lall.

Gooray complained that she took time off and flew from Essequibo and requested the State to pay her fare.

Mr Parvatan, however, adjourned the case to March 26 and later turned down an application by other attorney-at-law Ms Priya Manickchand, an associate Defence Counsel, to recall the matter.

Lall, 21, is on $150,000 bail.

She is accused of attempting to kill Mazaharally and Gooray on January 29 while they were all aboard a Cessna four-seater aeroplane that was flying from Ogle Airstrip, East Coast Demerara to Spring Garden, Essequibo Coast.

The attack took place shortly after they took off but the flyer was able to safely return to Ogle after Gooray intervened and was wounded, too.