State calls 9 witnesses

THE much-anticipated start of the Preliminary Inquiry into the murder of Dr Chandra Naraynsingh got off to a flying start yesterday with the State calling nine witnesses to give evidence. Among the nine who testified before Deputy Chief Magistrate Mark Wellington in the San Fernando First Magistrates’ Court, were a retired farmer, his unemployed daughter and seven police officers. Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard made good on his promise last week to be ready to start the State’s case at the next hearing. Gaspard told Wellington at the start of proceedings around 11.40 am, that he had ten witnesses present to begin the matter. The State, however, called nine witnesses as Gaspard relented to a request by Queen’s Counsel Karl Hudson-Phillips to have certain items of disclosure relating to the tenth witness.

The murder accused — eminent vascular surgeon Prof Vijay Naraynsingh, his wife retired school-teacher Seeromanie Naraynsingh and businessman Elton Ramasir, listened intently to almost three hours of evidence given by witnesses. The witnesses who testified yesterday were — retired police photographer Linda Ramsey; police photographer Allison Woods; friend of the deceased Geeta Saksena; Saksena’s father retired farmer Jirjodhan Mahabir; acting Cpl Kemron Francis; Cpl Radcliffe Boxhill; PC Steve Mackenzie, former police Sgt Ramdath Mahabir and PC Fitzbert Forde. Only five of the nine State witnesses were subjected to cross-examination by the battery of defence attorneys. Hudson-Phillips is leading the defence for  Naraynsingh, with attorneys Ravi Rajcoomar and Prakash Ramadhar.

Leading the defence for the accused doctor’s wife Seeromanie are Chaitram Sinanan, Sophia Chote, Mandavi Tewarie and Brian Dabideen with Larry Lalla appearing as counsel for the third accused  — Ramasir. As the case was called around 11.40 am, Seeromanie and Vijay greeted each other with smiles and sat side by side on the prisoners’ bench, with Ramasir sitting on the end of the bench. The accused couple shared a quiet laugh at times while Ramasir sat quietly, taking in the proceedings. The first witness called was retired police photographer WPC Linda Ramsey, through which five photographs were submitted as evidence in the murder case. The calm mood of the three accused became serious as WPC Ramsey held the pictures up to the court and explained the depictions in the photos. The description of the second photo brought tears to Seeromanie’s eyes and she leaned her head back in an attempt to stem the flow. When this failed, she wiped the tears away.

The seating arrangement of the three accused on a bench outside the prisoners’ dock with  Naraynsingh seated in the middle and his wife occupying one end and Ramasir on the other, triggered a controversy between attorneys for the State and defence. Before calling the eighth witness, Gaspard told Magistrate Wellington that he wished to place on record that the seating arrangement of the accused persons was not in accordance with how they had been charged by police and may relate to an identification issue for police witnesses, “if the matter goes elsewhere.” This submission resulted in the magistrate instructing that Vijay exchange seating position with Ramasir. But the matter of the seating arrangement did not end there. Ramadhar raised the question of the seating arrangement during his cross-examination of police constable McKenzie.

This brought Deputy DPP Gaspard to his feet in strong objection. “If we are going that way, we are going to have ‘ole mas’,” Gaspard said. “If my learned friend is going to conduct his cross-examination with prefatory remarks I am within my rights to raise it before the court because there seemed to be a departure from that today.” Ramadhar was quick in his reply, “I am not afraid of ‘ole mas’ when there is the freedom of three innocent people concerned” and added that there was no law requiring the accused to sit in the order they were charged. Magistrate Wellington shook his head, and instructed for the evidence to continue. The inquiry continued until almost 3.45 pm, when Gaspard said he had exhausted nine witnesses and would be making disclosure as requested by the defence on the tenth. Magistrate Wellington then fixed the next two dates of hearing to December 23 and 29.