Panday corruption case starts today

State attorneys Sir Timothy Cassel QC, Nalini Singh and Sabrina Doughdeen agreed with their counterparts on the defence — Desmond Allum SC, Allan Newman QC, Andrew Mitchell QC, Ravi Rajcoomar, Prakash Ramadar, Jagdeo Singh and Gillian Lucky - that the State could begin calling witnesses yesterday.

Although the defence had not yet received copies of all evidential documents from the State, both sides took the initiative of estimating that they would need three consecutive days to complete the inquiry.

Two witnesses from England were seated in the courtroom expecting to be called to give evidence. However, when Espinet was briefed on the attorneys’ intentions shortly after her arrival, she highlighted the fact that the attorneys reached their agreement with no input from the court.

She also reminded them that yesterday’s hearing was supposed to have been to decide if the defence had any legal objections to a hybrid paper committal. The court, Espinet said, was supposed to rule on that matter yesterday.

She said she had come prepared to deal with that issue and was not prepared to set aside three consecutive days to hear evidence. Further discussion between the magistrate and attorneys revealed some of the statements were “not in proper form.”

In response to Espinet’s questions on the State’s readiness to disclose copies of statements, Cassel said the documents would have been delivered to the defence by yesterday afternoon.

“I would imagine if a matter was to begin today this would already have been done,” the magistrate said, adding that even when the statements were completed and disclosed the issue of cross-examination remained. “Three days may not be enough,” she said.

The defence team, however, assured her it was possible to complete the inquiry in three days. The State gave an undertaking to have copies of the documents delivered to the defence by yesterday afternoon. Espinet adjourned the matter to today, adding that it would begin on the condition the documents were delivered to the defence. Galbaransingh and John were charged with corruptly giving 25,000 pounds sterling to the Pandays as an inducement or reward, while Panday and his wife were charged with corruptly receiving the money.