Friend fined for chopping  friend after drinking spree

NIGEL RAMBHARAT was  drinking with friends and when the fun was over, he mistook one of them for a bandit.

Yesterday, he was fined $6,000 and ordered also to pay $3,000 in compensation to his friend, Ricky Nandlal.

Also known as Nigel Ramnarran, Rambharat, 38, of  Isaac Avenue, Plaisance Park, Claxton Bay, pleaded guilty before Justice Maria Wilson in the San Fernando High Court to unlawful wounding. He was charged with maliciously wounding Nandlal.

Wilson heard from state attorney Sabrina Dougdeen-Jaglal, that on May 20, 2011, Nandlal went to Rambharat’s home in Isaac Avenue. Together with friends Ranjeev, Chris, and Seeram, they limed and drank alcohol. Close to midnight, the friends left, except for Nandlal, who went to the side of Rambharat’s house to urinate. He believed that the friends had gone to buy more drinks and to return to the house to continue the lime.

Dougdeen-Jaglal said Nandlal was talking on his cell phone in front of the house when he felt something strike him on the head.
He held on to Rambharat’s hands and saw he had a cutlass. He said, “Nigel boy, is me, is me.”
Nandlal managed to free himself and ran off into the darkness to the Nice Time bar, where he collapsed and police took him to the San Fernando General Hospital. He suffered a nine-centimetre laceration to the head and lost 600 ml of blood.

On Rambharat’s behalf, attorney Subhas Panday said the friends were drinking, cooking and playing cards and afterwards the accused had mistaken his friend for a stranger in the dark, since he believed his friends had long left.
Nandlal was in court and agreed that he and Rambharat were friends and still are. He said he did not want more than $3,000 in compensation, which covered his medical expenses.