Dhanraj is dead
By Yvonne Webb (Trinidad Guardian)
Former local government minister in the UNC administration Dhanraj Singh died yesterday morning at Westshore Medical Centre from heart-related problems.
His family, including his estranged wife Leela and their three children, Adesh, 22, Sharda, 21, Rajiv, ten, his mother Sheila, two sisters, doctors Indra Roopnarine Singh and Debbie Fuentes, as well as his brothers, were there when he expired around 10.30 am.
Although he died yesterday, relatives say his life ended several years ago when the party that he helped put into power abandoned him after he was charged with the murder of Mayaro Rio Claro chairman Hansraj Sumairsingh on Old Year’s Day 1999.
Singh, 50, was freed of that murder in October 2003, after spending two years at the Maximum Security Prison, but it fractured his marriage.
He also lost his father Roopnarine Singh, who died four months after he was freed.
The death severely impacted on Singh as his father stood by his side through this matter and other legal encounters he had during his tenure as a minister in the Basdeo Panday government between 1995 and 2000.
Following his release, he became a supporter of Prime Minister Patrick Manning, who visited him in jail, and the People’s National Movement.
Singh was very visible at PNM political meetings, conventions and other events.
In those four short years, as the Member of Parliament for Pointe-a-Pierre, Singh rose to prominence and was immortalised by Stalin in the calypso Wine, Dhanraj, Wine, because of his shenanigans on the political platform.
His prominence was not sustained as his several encounters with the law contributed to his fall.
His first brush with the law was on April 22, 1997. On that occasion, he was slapped with three traffic charges, including assaulting the late ACP Norton Registe who pulled him over for driving on the shoulder of the highway in the vicinity of Caroni.
Registe died before the trial was concluded on July 18, 2008, when Singh was freed of those charges by Magistrate Margaret Alert in the Chaguanas court.
In September 2007, Singh, conducting his own defence, was committed to stand trial in the San Fernando High Court, on two of 27 fraud charges.
The charges, corruptly soliciting $126,000 and corruptly receiving $100,000 from businessman Karamchand Rampersad, dated back to 2000 when he served as local government minister.
Funeral arrangements will be made subsequently.
