He is Ravindranauth Persaud, the Kitty, Georgetown businessman, who was nabbed last Saturday by GDF investigators.

He appeared along with Mohamed Shahuruddin, alias 'Plantain' before Magistrate Cecil Sullivan at the Georgetown Magistrates Courts.

Persaud and Shahuruddin were placed on $200,000 bail each for receiving stolen property.

Persaud of Dowding Street, Kitty and Shahuruddin of 168 Albert Street, Corriverton, denied two counts of receiving stolen property.

According to the particulars of the offences, between July 3 and August 9, this year, at Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara, they received one AK-47 rifle knowingly feloniously stolen or unlawfully obtained.

It was also alleged that between August 3 and August 9, 2002, at Liliendaal, they received an M-70 rifle knowingly stolen or unlawfully obtained.

Attorney-at-law, Mr. Nigel Hughes, appearing on behalf of both defendants, told the Court that the weapons named in the charge were never recovered by the Police. He described them as "imaginary weapons".

Ravindranauth Persaud
According to Hughes, there were no allegations that the weapons were used in any crime, and no member of the GDF was Court-martialled for any offence relating to the same findings.

He argued that ownership of the weapons was not established in the particulars of the offences, and noted that last week, Shahuruddin was charged with simple larcency of the weapons.

The Attorney-at-law thought it ironic that Shahuruddin had stolen the weapons from the GDF and had received them at the same time.

In his successful bail application, Hughes said that the defendants are fathers of young children and are businessmen.

The weapons were never used in any criminal activities committed, and neither defendant was a member of the GDF nor is in any way involved with the GDF, he said.

Magistrate Sullivan replied that he took into consideration Mr. Hughes's application and his informative points. He also looked at the present overcrowding in the Camp Street Prison.

The charges were transferred to the Sparendaam Magistrate's Court for September 13.

Last week, Shahuruddin and businessman Salim Bacchus, of 138 Line Path D, Corriverton, appeared before Acting Chief Magistrate Juliet Holder-Allen charged with three counts of unlawful possession and two counts of harbouring illegal immigrants. They were both refused bail.

Shahuruddin is charged with stealing one AK-47 rifle worth $760,000 from the (GDF) between July 9 and August 9 at Annandale, East Coast Demerara. He is scheduled to return to Vigilance Magistrate's Court today.

He was also charged with stealing an M-70 rifle worth $760,000, the property of the GDF between August 2 and August 9. On this charge, Shahuruddin returned to Court Nine before Magistrate Maxwell Edwards yesterday and was granted bail in the sum of $225,000.

Friends of Bacchus, Brazilian Amanda Sueli Dos Svale and her Surinamese boyfriend Yohan Soekha, were sentenced to one week and one month, respectively, for entering Guyana illegally and are to be deported at the end of their terms of imprisonment.

The charges came in light of the discovery earlier this month of an AK-47 in a black plastic bag under a bed at the Ruimveldt GDF Coast Guard base.

Checks in the stores revealed that other rifles were missing.