Professor to know fate Friday

PROF Vijay Narayn-singh will know on Friday if he, wife Seeromanie and businessman Elton Ramasir will stand trial for the 1994 murder of the professor’s former wife, Dr Chandra Naraynsingh. Deputy Chief Magistrate Mark Wellington will deliver his ruling at 10.30 am. In closing legal submissions on the 25-day preliminary inquiry, which ended yesterday, Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard submitted that a prima facie case had been made out against Prof Naraynsingh, Seeromanie and Ramasir to have them tried by a judge and jury for Chandra’s killing. Chandra was shot dead on June 29, 1994, outside the Langmore Health Foundation.

In reply to the attorneys for the three accused, Gaspard told Wellington, “Evidence in this case shows that a prima facie case has been made out against all three persons (Naraynsingh, Seeromanie and Ramasir.)” Four hours of final legal submissions brought the inquiry to a close, after which Wellington said he needed time to consider the totality of the evidence before deciding on whether a prima facie case had been made out by the prosecution to commit all three to stand trial. Wellington heard a total of 29 witnesses.

In his submissions, Gaspard said the function of a magistrate in an inquiry is ministerial. Gaspard told Wellington that his role as magistrate was to find out if a prima facie case was made out on the evidence. Making a decision on the facts, the prosecutor added, was an issue for the jury. “Evidence in this case shows that a prima facie case has been made out against all three persons (accused). A prima facie case is one which a jury, if properly directed, might convict,” Deputy DPP Gaspard said. However, at yesterday’s hearing, attorneys representing the three accused sought to have their last say, vehemently opposing Gaspard’s contention. Attorney Prakash Ramadhar, in submitting to  Wellington that he could examine the facts, said, “While the prosecution wishes to allow yourself to be emasculated, that you can’t look at the facts — the prosecution’s aim is to deem you only ministerial and not judicial.”

Defence attorneys Queen’s Counsel Karl Hudson-Phillips, Sophia Chote and Larry Lalla submitted that the evidence of the State’s key witnesses to the murder of Dr Chandra — Shawn Parris and Junior Morris — were “tainted witnesses,” whose evidence were “manifestly unreliable,” and filled with “irreconcilable differences.” But in reply to this, Gaspard argued that the court does not have the power to deem Parris and Morris as  “tainted witnesses.” He said, “That these two gentlemen, or whatever epithet this court chooses to use, the court cannot turn its back on their evidence since the court is duty-bound to consider all the evidence.”