By STACY MOORE Thursday, August 6 2009

click on pic to zoom in

OUT ON BAIL: Beena Ramoutar, 32, of Embacadare, San Fernando, charged with allegedly burning her ten-year-old daughter Leandra Khan hands is being es...

A 32-year-old mother who allegedly burnt the hands of her ten-year-old daughter by placing it on a hot pot on Tuesday evening yesterday appeared before a San Fernando magistrate to answer the charge.

But while the mother identified as Beena Ramoutar appeared before a magistrate, the court heard that her ten-year-old girl Leandra Khan remained warded at the San Fernando General Hospital children’s ward with injuries to her hands.

Clad in a red t-shirt and blue jeans Beena Ramoutar was brought across to the San Fernando Magistrates’ Court yesterday after spending the night in police custody.

Ramoutar, 32, of Embacadare, San Fernando, appeared before deputy Chief Magistrate Mark Wellington in the First San Fernando Magistrate’s Court.

The charge read out to Ramoutar by the magistrate alleged that on Tuesday last, she maliciously inflicted grievous bodily harm on Leandra Khan at her home on Lady Hailes Avenue Embacadare, San Fernando.

Ramoutar pleaded not guilty to the charge laid by WPC Shirley Mathews of the San Fernando Police Station.

The alleged incident is said to have occurred at about 5 pm Tuesday when Ramoutar allegedly placed her daughter’s hands on a hot pot.

Attorney Subhas Panday who represented Ramoutar, pleaded for bail, but however said that he found himself in a tight position.

“These are the kind of cases that as an attorney you find yourself in a tight position. As an attorney you have a duty to the court and also to society.” Panday said.

Police court prosecutor Sgt Joey Samaroo told the magistrate that the ten-year-old child (Leandra) stays with her father a fisherman, who has custody of her, but when the father goes out, the child would usually stay with her mother (Ramoutar). But Samaroo told the magistrate that arrangements were being made for the child to stay with her grandmother.

Wellington granted the woman bail in the sum of $15,000 or $10,000 cash alternative and transferred the case to the Fourth San Fernando Magistrate’s Court.

Ramoutar was escorted in handcuffs by a female police officer out of the court. She would reappear on August 12.

A similar incident occurred last year September when a woman was accused of burning the hands of her 12-year-old relative. The 24-year-old woman Roxanne Williams was charged with placing her 12-year-old relative Elizabeth Kawal hands over a lighted stove at her Marabella home following a dispute.

That case is currently before Magistrate Melvin Daniel in the Second Magistrate’s Court. The trial which was due to begin on Tuesday was postponed after Kawal reportedly took ill.

After sustaining the burns on her hands, Kawal was warded at the San Fernando Hospital. The case was adjourned to tomorrow and attorney Michelle Rampaul is representing Williams.