Mark Bassant
Principal editor, investigative table
Two weeks after Andrea Bharatt, 23, was kidnapped and his body was later found lying in the Aripo Hills, a Malabar man must be charged with his murder.
A 35-year-old suspect will also be charged with receiving stolen goods.
The instructions to prosecute the pair came after the homicide investigators met with DPP Roger Gaspard for several hours yesterday.
The police told the Guardian Media that as of yesterday evening they were preparing to file the charges, which should have been done last night or earlier this morning.
They will appear before a magistrate via an online connection later this afternoon.
Guardian Media understands that the suspect is the accused’s girlfriend and also lives in Malabar.
The accused murder, according to police sources, occurred in the vehicle carrying a fake taxi sign along with the main suspect, Joel Balcon, 37, when they kidnapped Bharatt on King Street, Arima, on January 29.
For six days, police searched several forest areas in eastern Trinidad in the hope of finding Bharatt alive.
But those hopes were dashed when his decomposed body was found in the Aripo Hills.
Later, her relatives were able to identify her by the clothes.
His death not only caused a wave of anger and pain across the country, but since then there have been constant candlelight vigils, as many called for changes to the law.
The murder suspect, along with Balcon and five others, were in police custody two days after Bharatt’s disappearance.
Balcon, who investigators believe was the mastermind of Bharatt’s kidnapping, was taken to the Eric Williams Medical Science Complex hours after being arrested by the police.
Important sources say that Balcon, who was known by the police as a sex offender, with drugs, firearms, theft and theft, was unconscious until he died last Monday.
He was also paralyzed.
Balcon beaten to death
An autopsy on Balcon’s body yesterday at the Forensic Science Center in St James by pathologist Dr. Eastlyn McDonald Burris revealed that Balcon died from multiple trauma to the body.
The injuries he sustained may have been caused by a beating he claimed to have suffered.
Guardian Media also understands that toxicology and drug screening tests were also performed on Balcon’s body, as well as a COVID-19 test.
Balcon’s body was identified by his father Trevor Neal and uncle Marvin Bramble. The autopsy results were later delivered to PC Williams.
One of the other suspects, Andrew Morris, died in the hospital on Monday, February 1, allegedly from injuries sustained while in police custody.
Autopsies done by the state and an independent revealed that he died of blunt trauma.
According to the first autopsy done at the Forensic Science Center, Morris suffered brain fractures, several broken ribs, bleeding from internal organs, burn marks on his back (supposedly from a taser) bruising on his right eye, bleeding in the brain and also damage to the shoulders and legs.
His relatives claimed that he had been beaten at his home on Tumpuna Road in Arima by officers of the Special Operations Response Team (SORT).
Bharatt will be buried after a funeral tomorrow.