'Plenty pepper' in food leads to stabbing

Too much pepper in a meal of rice, dhal and chicken ended in one man stabbing his co-worker in a garage in La Romaine on Saturday.

Today, 60-year-old Vishnu “Creamy” Ramcharitar faced senior magistrate Jo-Anne Connor in the San Fernando Magistrates’ Court charged with maliciously wounding Teeluck Latch at Auto Body Works garage at Pond Street.

The father of seven, who was not represented by a lawyer, pleaded guilty, but after prosecutor Cleyon Seedan read out the prosecution’s case, the magistrate entered a not-guilty plea on Ramcharitar’s behalf.

Police contend that at about 6.45 pm on Saturday the men were in the garage and had a dispute in which Ramcharitar broke a beer bottle and stabbed Latch.

Latch contacted the police and when PC Anwar Mohammed and other police of the San Fernando CID arrived, he told them his “partner Vishnu” had just stabbed him.

In response, Ramcharitar said: “Officer, me and Teeluck fall out and we fight, and I stabbed him.”

Police arrested him. The injured Latch was treated and discharged the same day from the hospital.

Today, Ramcharitar told the magistrate he lives in the same compound as the garage. He said there was “no women around to cook” on Saturday, so he cooked rice, dhal and chicken and invited Latch and others to eat.

They were eating and drinking when Latch began complaining there was too much pepper in the food.

Ramcharitar told the magistrate: “We were drunk. He is like a son to me. He say the food have plenty pepper. He say I cook for myself and not for him. It was a scramble we had.”

After hearing the explanation, the magistrate entered the not guilty plea.

She granted him $20,000 surety bail with a cash alternative of $4,000 and adjourned the case to September 9.