Murder of Mary Grace: spouse remanded pending outcome of trial

The Criminal Court has ordered to remand Marvin S. Y. Vargas, suspect being tried for the murder of a Philippines national employed as a nurse at Indhira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH), pending the outcome of the trial.

A hearing in connection to the murder trial was carried out at the Criminal Court on Thursday.

Charged in connection to the murder case are Filipino Marvin S. Y. Vargas and a local woman, Haleemath Lamha.

The court proceeded with the charges against the murdered nurse; Mary Grace Oned Pineda’s spouse during an earlier hearing on 20 January 2022. The hearing ended with the suspect given 10 days to appoint legal representation, and remanded for a period of 30 days.

Speaking during the last hearing, presiding Judge Hussain Faaiz Rashad had noted that a remand review will be held once Marvin appointed an attorney. Marvin took part in Thursday’s hearing with his attorney.

Following this, the state prosecutors requested for Marvin to be jailed pending sentencing, as he was eligible for it. This was granted by the judges’ bench, in accordance with statements by the defendant’s attorney and state.

The hearing saw Marvin’s attorney expressing concern over his client’s remand, stating that he is currently locked up against the legal mandate. He also stated that this in turn strips his client of his rights and presents concerning issues especially as Marvin is currently being held in a police custodial facility.

Marvin had earlier requested to be transferred to a prison facility from Dhoonidhoo custodial remand, in the next hearing.

With this being said, the presiding judge had ordered for Marvin to be transferred to a remand facility within 15 days.

Marvin was charged with deliberate murder on January 4. He faces accusations of injuring Mary’s head and neck and strangling her to death in her apartment in the capital city, on 19 October 2021.

Marvin faces a 10-year prison sentence if he is proven guilty of the charges raised against him.

Marvin’s lover, Lamha also faces charges for conspiring with Marvin to carry out the murder and assisting in facilitating it. Hearings in both trials are being held separately.

Lamha’s trial is also proceeding, with the latest hearing being held on Thursday right after Marvin’s. Similarly, the state prosecutors had requested for Lamha to be remanded pending sentencing as well. Her remand was extended for 30 days in the last hearing and on Thursday, the court reviewed her remand.

The presiding judge had revealed that a detailed review of Lamha’s remand will be carried out during a hearing slated for February 21, with which her remand has been extended an additional four days.

Lamha faces six years in prison if she is found guilty.

She also faces additional charges for deliberately taking unauthorized control over the property of another person after the police found two injections from IGMH that she did not have authority to take out of the hospital. The two needles were found hidden inside her bedroom. She is also charged with carrying out an activity that requires permission from authorities, without obtaining permission after police found a drug issued only for the use of hospitals, while searching her bedroom.

If convicted, Lamha will be jailed for four months and 24 days.

Maldives Police Service (MPS) confirmed the arrest of Lamha under a court order, on 16 December 2021.

Mary Grace was employed as a worker at the Dialysis Center of IGMH. The Filipino nurse’s suspicious death was reported on 19 October 2021. After bringing her body to the hospital, her spouse initially claimed that she committed suicide by hanging. However, he is to have later changed the story.

The police arrested her spouse, 29 years of age and also employed as a nurse in IGMH, under suspicions of murder as there were no signs of suicide by hanging, on the victim’s body. Her spouse was arrested on 27 October 2021.

The murdered nurse’s body was sent to India for an autopsy and returned to her family in Philippines afterwards, on 7 November 2021.

Citing the autopsy report, the police institution revealed that her death is not believed to have been by hanging. The autopsy report indicated that she died from a “blunt trauma”, which refers to an injury of the body by forceful impacts, falls or a physical attack on the body.

Sources report that Marvin; the victim’s spouse and Lamha were having an affair. The latter is also a nurse employed at IGMH.

The police institution forwarded the case for prosecution on 19 December 2021.