An eyewitness yesterday testified that he saw murder accused Satesh Singh and Parsram Lalchand attacking his father-in-law, the man they are charged with beating to death after an argument over a bicycle.
Asraf Khan testified before Justice Navindra Singh in the High Court yesterday as the trial of Singh and Lalchand continued.
The two men were accused along with Vishal, Babzie called ‘Solex,’ Vishnu, and Akash Singh of the July 29, 2008 murder of Niranjan. Babzie is the father of the three other Singhs.
Vishal, Vishnu and Babzie were sentenced to 15 years in prison last week after they pleaded guilty to manslaughter, while Akash was freed after the prosecution withdrew the murder charge against him.
Niranjan died two days after the beating as a result of a cerebral haemorrhage due to a fractured skull as a result of a blunt cranial trauma, a post-mortem examination found. Lalchand and Singh are represented by attorney Moses Nagamootoo and Hukumchand.
State prosecutors Dhanika Singh and Konyo Thompson presented Khan as a witness to the court yesterday. Khan testified that Niranjan was his father in-law and on the day of the attack he was at home eating when a boy came and told him something.
He said that based on what the boy told him, he and Niranjan went to a shop in Lusignan, where he lives. Upon their arrival at the shop, they saw Lalchand with the bicycle they lost and when they inquired from him as to how he got it, he told them he borrowed it from Vishal and he would take them to him.
Khan added that he, Niranjan, Lalchand and two other persons went to Annandale Pump Road to Vishal’s house, where they asked him from where he got the bicycle.
An argument ensued, he said, and ‘Solex’ came out of the house with a cutlass. He added that he was talking with Lalchand when one of the men, who accompanied them to Vishal’s house, shouted “Cutlass! Run!”
Khan said that he began to run and while he was running he heard his father in-law scream.
“When I turn back, I see Solex chop ma father-in-law in he head at de back,” he said, while adding that he saw Vishal, Vishnu, Akash, Lalchand and Satesh coming with woods, which they used to beat Niranjan.
The trial will continue on Friday.
