The Vivekanand Nandalall murder trial commenced yesterday before Madam Justice Dawn Gregory and three state witnesses testified.
It is alleged that between October 16, 2003 and March 13, 2004, Shawn Richardson murdered Nandalall, at Enterprise, East Coast Demerara. Richardson, of Bachelor’s Adventure, East Coast Demerara (ECD), was charged with the murder in November 2004.
Reports were that Nandalall, a taxi driver, was kidnapped in October 2003 and his uncle paid a ransom but he was not released. What were suspected to be his skeletal remains were later found in the cane field behind Bare Root, ECD. In July 2004, DNA tests conducted in Canada confirmed that the skeletal remains were those of the taxi driver.
Heeralall Kishore, the uncle of the deceased, Basmattie Nandalall, an aunt, and Corporal Ellory Mason testified yesterday. The matter has been adjourned to this morning when lead defence attorney Clarissa Riehl will continue her cross-examination of Mason.
Nandalall’s uncle said that in October 2003, he received a call from Basmattie, also known as Leeta, and after the conversation he called his dead nephew’s cellular phone. A strange male voice, Heeralall told the court, answered the phone and gave him certain instructions. The man then contacted the Vigilance Police Station and a team of ranks headed by current Deputy Crime Chief Cosbert went to his home. While the police were present, Heeralall said, the same strange male called several more times using Nandalall’s cellular phone. The last call was received at 10 pm and police then left his home, he told the court.
At 2.30 am, he further testified, he received another phone call from the same person and based on what he had been told, he started to gather money.
Heeralall was able to accumulate $1 million and the money was packaged. He then instructed his brother, Hardat Kishore, and his nephew, Wazir Khan, to take his vehicle and drop him with the money on the Railway Embankment Road, between Bare Root and Bladen Hall. Heeralall said he then positioned himself at the side of the road in the grass and during the time he lay there Hardat and Khan drove by in his vehicle 15 times. They subsequently abandoned the wait and returned to his house, Heeralall told the court.
After he returned home, about 3.50 am on October 17, 2003, the man testified, he received another call from the same person and based on the instructions received, he dropped the money at a koker in Bare Root and then went to wait about 30 yards away.
Hardat and Khan were in his vehicle patrolling again, he said. However, they waited until daybreak, Heeralall told the court, and Nandalall never showed up at the location as was arranged. When he, his brother and Khan returned to the koker, the money was not there. Heeralall said he then informed police of this development and an investigating team went to the koker.
Heeralall told the court that he has not seen or heard from his nephew Vivekanand since October 2003 and as far as he is concerned his nephew is dead.
The second state witness to be led was Basmattie, with whom Nandalall lived before his death.
The woman told the court that Nandalall lived with her, her husband Vinod Etwaroo and their son. Nandalall, she testified, would normally drop her son to school every morning and return home around 5/5.30pm to bathe. However, on October 16, 2003, he never came home.
The woman said that she went to bed and at 2.30 am the following morning (October 17, 2003), she checked Nandalall’s bedroom but it was empty. Later that same morning, a jeep load of police came to her house and enquired about Nandalall’s whereabouts.
The police, the woman explained when questioned by the jury, came to her house because they had found her nephew’s car abandoned on the Railway Embankment Road.
Basmattie told the court that she then called the grandmother of the deceased to find out whether the man had spent the night there. On October 17, she further testified, she called Nandalall’s cellular phone and he answered. As a result of what he told her, the woman said, she gave the phone to one of the policemen who were at her house still and then called her brother Heeralall. Basmattie said that she started asking relatives for money and was able to raise $150,000 of the $1 million, which Heeralall would later take to the Bare Root koker.
She further told the court that it was the last time she heard from her nephew and as far as she is concerned he is dead.
During cross examination Riehl asked the witness: “Can you say with certainty that he is dead? How can you be sure?” In response, Basmattie told the defence that she was sure her nephew is dead and that Nandalall’s parents had a DNA test done to identify his remains.
Corporal Ellory Mason, the officer who arrested the accused, was the next state witness to be called. Mason, who was stationed at the Vigilance Police Station in November 2004, told the court that he received certain instructions while he was on a mobile patrol on the ECD with a team of ranks.
Based on the instructions received, Mason testified, he went to a point in Bare Root, where he contacted Richardson.
The accused, he said, was sitting on a bench at shop and it was based on the description he received during his instructions that he was able to identify Richardson.
Mason said he went to the man who he had identified as Richardson (he pointed to the accused in the courtroom), put the allegation to him, cautioned him and then took him to the Vigilance Police Station.
