Two freed of murder

TWO men who plotted and murdered Mobina Ali for fear that she would persuade her common-law husband Harry Narinesingh to change his will, were yesterday freed of murdering Narinesingh, three days after killing Ali. The two men, Narine Sooklal, Narinesingh’s son-in-law and Francis Mansingh, were convicted and sentenced to death for the December 10, 1992 murder of 52-year-old Mobina Ali. The two were also charged with killing Ali’s common-law husband, Harry Narinesingh, three days later, on December 13, 1992 at his home on Southern Main Road, Montrose, Chaguanas. When the matter came up yesterday before Justice Malcolm Holdip in the Port-of-Spain Fourth Criminal Court, State attorney Nadia James offered no evidence in the case. The policeman who laid the charge in the matter has left the country and the justice of the peace who witnessed the alleged statements is dead.

However, the killers’ attorneys Dana Seetahal, I Stuart Brook,  Nadia Astraph and Ravi Heffes-Doon, had filed motions claiming that to proceed with the trial after a delay of 11 years would be an abuse of the process. Justice Holdip ordered the jury to return not guilty verdicts against the accused in light of the State’s position on the matter. In reviewing the murder case of Ali, Lord Hope of Craighead, observed that Sooklal and Mansingh together with Sooklal’s son Sharma also known as “Ding,” were jointly charged with Ali’s murder. Ding was acquitted during the trial in May 1996, but his father and Mansingh  were found guilty. Lord Hope in his judgment said that the outcome of the trial depended largely on inferences drawn from admissions made by Sooklal and Mansingh about the part each played. He noted that Sooklal’s wife believed that Ali, who had been her father’s housemaid turned wife, had been trying to persuade her father (Narinesingh) to change his will and leave his property to Ali instead of to his family.
“It was decided that something should be done to prevent this. Sooklal agreed with Mansingh that the deceased (Ali) should be given a beating to frighten her away.

“Ding and Mansingh collected Ali by car from her home under the pretext that Harry Narinesingh was ill and needed her attention. Instead of taking her to his home, they took her to a quiet spot where they stopped the car at the side of the road. Mansingh slapped Ali and then began to strangle her. She was pushed out of the car, whereupon Mansingh cut her throat with a cutlass.” Three days later, December 13, Narinesingh was found dead at his home. On the same day the Sooklals reported to the police that they had left Ali in the company of Narinesingh on December 12. They returned the following day and discovered Ali missing and Narinesingh unconscious. Ali’s body was found on the morning of December 11, but was only  identified afterwards.