By LAUREL V. WILLIAMS Tuesday, July 10 2012

CHAGUANAS Magistrate Gillian Scotland yesterday granted $150,000 surety bail to a grandmother who was charged with trafficking cocaine.

Indrani Bachan also called Sharma, 51, appeared before Scotland in the First Court yesterday to answer the charge. Police officers of the Chaguanas Criminal Investigation Department arrested the grandmother of five on Wednesday last at her home during an exercise. The police allegedly found 706 grammes of the illegal narcotic in her private parts. WPC Sammy of Central Division Task Force subsequently laid the charge.

Bachan yesterday pleaded not guilty to the charge. Addressing the magistrate yesterday. Bachan’s attorney Joseph Honore said her criminal records had been tendered. In his mitigation plea for bail, the attorney told Scotland that Bachan lived at a fixed address at Calcutta Road, Freeport. He further said while in custody his client had been hospitalised for two days at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Mount Hope, suffering from hypertension. While at the health institution, she was placed on “drips”, he added.

Police Court prosecutor Sgt Jackson confirmed the accused grandmother was hospitalised in Mt Hope and added she was also taken to the Chaguanas Health Facility for medical treatment. However Jackson informed the magistrate that Bachan had refused to take treatment.