Wine, earrings and pipe for wife on Valentine’s Day

Testifying yesterday, the neighbour, Ramparia Ramjit, also known as "Indra," told a judge and jury in the San Fernando High Court how the accused husband beat Sookram with a length of steel pipe on February 14, 2003.

Boban, 42, also known as "Scotty," of Mulchan Trace, is on trial before Justice Devan Rampersad and a 12-member mixed jury in the Third Criminal Assizes. He is being defended by attorney Nizam Mohammed, instructed by Anuusha Panday.

Ramjit, who said she lived next door to Boban and the deceased Sookram, was called as a State witness yesterday. Ramjit told the court that at about lunchtime that day, Sookram, whom she knew as "June," was in the gallery of her (Ramjit’s) home. Boban, she said, was seated in the gallery of the couple’s home next door.

Ramjit testified yesterday that Boban, from his gallery, called out to wife Sookram and asked if she had come for their child. Sookram, Ramjit said, replied she did not.

Ramjit told the judge and jury that Boban then handed his wife a bottle of wine. "He hand she over the wire and she take a drink and left," Ramjit testified. Ramjit said she saw Boban give his wife a pair of silver earrings.

Ramjit said that half an hour later, she saw Boban coming up the hill. He called out to her and said, "Tanty Indra, Tanty Indra, I just kill June." The neighbour said she walked down Mulchan Trace, but did not see the deceased Sookram. "I was coming back home," Ramjit told the court, "when he tell me, ‘go back and see. I just kill she.’"

Ramjit told the court that she eventually saw Sookram lying in "Tanty Lall" yard.

The trial continues today.