The prosecution called multiple witnesses – including a doctor, Police officers and a civilian – to testify during Roy Jaglall’s ongoing murder trial on Monday.
Jaglall, of Annandale, East Coast Demerara, has been jointly indicted with Vivekanand Ram, a carpenter of Lusignan, ECD, for the 2020 murder of Mukesh Mangra, a 23-year-old fisherman of Coldingen, ECD, whose body was found on the Coldingen public road with stab wounds and lacerations.
At his arraignment before Justice Simone Morris-Ramlall at the Demerara High Court earlier this month, co-accused Vivekanand Ram had chosen to enter a guilty plea. This confessed killer would be sentenced at some time next month.
When Jaglall’s trial continued before Justice Morris-Ramlall and a jury on Monday, Police Detective Corporal Chaitram Seeram testified that he was the lead investigator into the murder. He told the court that the killing happened between Tasha’s Bar and the Chico Ramas Service Station. He basically testified that, as part of the murder inquiry, he had given the crime scene ranks instructions to, inter alia, gather video recordings from surrounding businesses.
During cross-examination by defence attorney Dominick Bess, Corporal Seeram admitted that the videotapes were unclear, and as such were not an essential component of the evidence.
Additionally, he mentioned that although the tapes had been brought to the Magistrate’s Court for the Preliminary Inquiry (PI), they had not been entered into evidence.
Corporal Seeram was unable to explain why the items had not been tendered.
Corporal Seeram added that although he had videotaped an altercation between Tagepaul Sukdeo, who at the time was a suspect in the killing, and the accused, it had never been shown in court.
He went on to say that although six video recordings had been gathered for the investigation, none was brought to the court.
Seven other witnesses were summoned by State Prosecutors Rbina Christmas, Caressa Henry and Delon Fraser. Among them was Government Pathologist Dr. Nehaul Singh, who provided details of the autopsy he performed on Mangra’s body.
Dead: Mukesh Mangra
Dr. Singh disclosed in his evidence that the fisherman’s cause of death was lung and liver perforation. According to the doctor, the dead man had three incised wounds, two of which were in the belly. In his opinion, those wounds were most likely caused by a sharp item with a length of 10cm.
Sukdeo, who was called as a state witness, related that Jaglall had informed other men he was hanging out with at Tasha’s Bar that a man he would later identify as Mangra had stolen his knife and cutlass, and Jaglall had said he “wanted to juke he up.”
Sukhdeo recounted that after hearing what Jaglall had to say, the men got into a car and drove over to face Mangra. Mangra had tried to flee when Jaglall and the other men confronted him, but the accused caught him and stabbed him in the belly with a knife, Sukdeo added.
The lifeless body of the fisherman Mangra, called “Paul”, with multiple stab wounds, was discovered along the Coldingen roadway on Saturday, January 18, 2020.
According to reports received, on the night of January 18, 2020, between 19:45h and 20:30h, a painter was heading home on his bicycle when he made the gruesome discovery of Mangra’s lifeless body lying on the western side of the said road with two stab wounds to his abdomen – one to the left side and the other to the right side.
The painter immediately contacted the nearest Police station, and ranks reportedly responded to the scene.
According to the Police, the area was searched, and a blue-handled knife was found almost 50 feet away from the body.
Mangra’s mother had reportedly told the Police that her late son had left their home on January 11, 2020 to work at sea. She explained that he was slated to return home about a week later, but did not show up. She said she believed he might have been killed during a robbery, since he would collect money from his boss when he was off the sea.
