Crime Chief Seelall Persaud yesterday said that the Director of Public Prosecutions has the power to instruct the Magistrate’s court to reopen the preliminary inquiry pertaining to businessman Rondy Jagdeo who was freed on Thursday on a charge of killing his close friend Kirk Davis.
The Crime Chief was at the time responding to questions from the media after Jagdeo was freed at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court when a no-case submission made by the defence was upheld by Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry following the absence of key witnesses.
“The procedure is that the prosecutor writes a report and the file goes to the DPP and the DPP can advise how we proceed. The DPP herself can cause action to be taken; the DPP can instruct the magistrate to reopen the inquiry,” he explained.
After nearly two months on the run, Jagdeo turned himself into police in the company of attorneys-at-law Mark Waldron and Roger Yearwood.
Persaud said that the witnesses have an obligation to provide evidence. “In this case it was a civilian witness. Civilian witnesses have a duty to the state and we expect that they perform that duty.”
“We cannot do anything else, not unless the court issues an arrest warrant. The courts can do that and if they issue an arrest warrant then we will arrest them and keep them in custody until they give evidence or until the courts recall that warrant,” he said.
On Thursday, Police Prosecutor Bharrat Mangru had said that Neliffa Dookie, the wife of the deceased, and Rondel Marks were once again absent. Despite numerous attempts to summon the witnesses, no appearances had been made by either of the two.
In the initial appearance, Mangru had stated that Jagdeo had learnt that Davis had kissed Jagdeo’s wife on the neck one evening while in Palm Court and had gone to Davis’s home in Eccles to confront him.
Mangru had stated that on September 3, Jagdeo visited Davis’s home with his silver motor vehicle and instructed the man to enter the vehicle. Mangru told the court that shortly after, the accused exited the driver’s side of the car, opened the backseat door and shot Davis several times. The injured man’s body was then dumped out of the vehicle before Jagdeo drove away, Mangru had concluded.
A post-mortem examination later revealed that Davis had been shot sixteen times.
