State requests to place Lamha in custody citing bail condition violation

The State has appealed to place Haleemath Lamha, accused in the murder of IGMH nurse Mary Grace, back in custody as she was attending court hearings without notifying Police, which they said is a violation of her bail conditions.

Lamha is accused of being an accomplice in the murder of Grace, a nurse from Philippines, in October 2021. She was released under conditional bail while the trial proceeds by the Criminal Court in November last year.

A hearing was held in the Criminal Court to review Lamha's remand today. At the hearing, prosecutor Aminath Shama said that there are also allegations against Lamha of having threatened another inmate while in prison, due to which the State is of the view that it is necessary that she be held in custody.

She further said that Lamha having violated the condition of her release which stipulates she must inform Police if leaving the house is another reason why her remand needs to be reviewed.

She noted that Lamha had attended both the High Court hearing on Monday and today's hearing at the Criminal Court without notifying Police.

Lamha's defence lawyer Ahmed Yamin stated that Lamha had appealed for police permission to leave the house on personal business, but had not done the same when attending Court hearings as it is an order upon her to attend Court when summoned. He maintained that the defence did not believe she had to preemptively notify Police in such instances.

He stated that Lamha had left the house to attend Court hearings, and she had not come to Court after 'driving all around Male''. He said that members of Lamha's family had also accompanied her to Court, and so her intentions need to be taken into account.

Yamin argued that it is the responsibility of the State to make arrangements in the instance Lamha has to attend court.

Judge Hussain Faiz Rashad, who is hearing the case, ruled that Lamha had not violated a bail condition.

This was based on the fact that while release conditions ask Lamha to notify Police if leaving the house, it also separately states that she must attend Court if summoned. The Judge said that due to this, Lamha has to notify the Police only if she is leaving the house for reasons other than attending court hearings.

The Judge then asked the State if they wished to rephrase this article in the bail conditions, to which the State requested that it be made necessary to seek Police permission even to attend court. The judge granted this request.

High Court is also currently looking into the case of Lamha being released on bail. The State has appealed to the High Court as well to place Lamha back in custody. The High Court's verdict will be announced at the next hearing.

Mary's husband, Marvin S. Y. Vargas, and Lamha, both nurses at IGMH, are charged in the murder. While Marvin faces charges of murder with intent, Lamha is accused of being an accomplice, along with other charges.

A hearing on the case was also held today. Although the State had intended to take a witness statement in this hearing, they said today that they no longer wished to present the witness. The State said that they do not wish to take witness statements from a doctor present during Mary's post mortem and two officers involved in the investigation.

As a reason, the State said that their statements are not necessary at this point, and sufficient evidence to prove the charges have been submitted.

Next in the case will be taking witness statements from the defence. Hearings in the case will next be held in February.