DNA Found on Prayer Items at Crime Scene
Hindu Prayer items that were found at the crime scene at Nausori Highlands contained the DNA of the murder accused Muhammed Raheesh Isoof and two other unknown, unidentified persons.
This came up in the trial yesterday during the cross-examination of the Prosecution’s twenty-seventh witness.
The trial is presided by High Court Judge Justice Thushara Rajasinghe.
The Charges:
Isoof is alleged to have murdered Nirmal Kumar, 63, his wife Usha Devi, 54, their daughter Nileshni Kajal, 34, and Ms Kajal’s daughters Sanah Singh, 11, Samarah Singh, 8 at Nausori Highlands in August 2019.
He is also charged with one count of attempted murder of Samaira Kumar who was found abandoned near the bodies of five deceased persons at Nausori Highlands.
Representations:
The State prosecutors were Semi Babitu, Taitusi Tuenuku, and Prenika Lata from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The defence counsel was Iqbal Khan from Iqbal Khan and Associates.
Trial Day 8:
Prosecution Witness 27: Acting Superintendent of Police (ASP) Aiyaz Ali
ASP Ali who is the Deputy Director of Organised Crime at the Criminal Investigations Department, took the stand once again in the trial yesterday.
ASP Ali was leading a team of Police officers to assist in the investigation of bodies discovered at the Nausori Highlands.
The CCTV footage continued to be presented in court which was of the Newworld Supermarket in Votualevu, Nadi.
ASP Ali testified that as per the analysis, both the vehicles of the deceased and the accused arrived in the car park at 9.24.03am.
He also testified that the accused’s vehicle was a rental which belonged to Chetty’s Rental, rented by the accused.
He said he analysed that the accused’s vehicle went and was parked next to the deceased’s vehicle and Nirmal got out of his vehicle.
He said the boot lid of the white vehicle was opened and items were loaded into it.
He further added that Usha and others got into the accused’s vehicles and left the car park around 9.26am.
ASP Ali said, when traced, the vehicle was found traveling past Satya’s Shopping Centre in Mulomulo, Nadi.
He said the shopping centre was located on Mulomulo Road while going up to the Nausori Highlands.
ASP Ali said the team that retrieved the footage from Satya’s Shopping Centre, found that there was an issue with the time in the footage, which was running late.
He said at 9.16.13am, Isoof’s vehicle went past towards the Highland.
When Mr Babitu questioned the witness about how he knew it was the accused’s vehicle, ASP Ali said he had personally seen the vehicle parked at the Namaka Police Station and also that the owner of Chetty’s Rental, Mr Chetty had identified his vehicle.
He said Mr Chetty had two similar vehicles in the same colour and one was rented by Isoof, however, it had an air-conditioning issue so the second vehicle was given to him.
ASP Ali also stated that after 12pm, Isoof ’s vehicle was seen coming down from the
Highlands side.
He said there was also CCTV footage provided to his team by the investigators, which was from Shop N
Save Namaka.
In that footage, ASP Ali said Isoof ’s vehicle entered the car park at 12.36pm and it was the same vehicle with the same registration that was also seen in other CCTV footage.
The footage showed Isoof walking up the stairs into the supermarket at 12.38pm and buying groceries.
At 12.47pm, the footage showed Isoof at the cashier counter to check out his purchased items. At 12.51pm, Isoof left the car park in his vehicle.
ASP Ali stated that based on the documents obtained from Chetty’s Rental Car, his team was able to confirm that the accused was driving the vehicle.
Mr Babitu asked the witness whether he was aware there were certain photographs obtained from the deceased’s phone. ASP Ali said he was and he had directed his team to inspect the mobile phone.
He said there were 11 photos that were taken on August 25, 2019, near the crime scene at Nausori Highlands.
The photos were shown to the court, which had scenes of the crime scene, selfie photos of Nirmal, and photos that showed Isoof holding a bag and standing near a cliff and pointing down.
ASP Ali said the Police officers had managed to obtain the clothes Isoof wore that day along with his bag.
He also stated that the bodies of the deceased persons were about two metres away from a 100 plus metre drop cliff.
Cross-Examination:
Mr Khan questioned the witness if he had seen the DNA report as per his Police statement, to which ASP Ali said yes.
He then asked the witness whether he had seen the post mortem report. ASP Ali said briefly.
Mr Khan questioned the witness whether he had enquired of who installed the CCTV footage.
ASP Ali responded no.
Mr Khan then questioned the witness whether the team had enquired on what time zones were the CCTV cameras on.
ASP Ali said yes and that apart from Satya’s Shopping Centre, which was in the Wellington time zone, others had the Fiji time zone. Mr Khan questioned the witness on what grounds did he know the time zones on the CCTV cameras.
ASP Ali said they had checked it and it was not rocket science.
Mr Khan then questioned the witness if he recalled seven witnesses giving statements to the Police about what they had seen on the night of August 25, 2019.
ASP Ali said yes. Mr Khan then questioned the witness if he recalled the witnesses giving a statement that there were several vehicles and people going on the hill between 6pm and 7pm.
ASP Ali said he did not remember.
He said the investigation team was made up of more than 80 Police officers and was divided into teams and tasks.
He said his team was tasked with looking after all the digital evidence.
Mr Khan questioned the witness whether it was correct that the prayer items commonly used in Hindu culture had DNA of other unknown and unidentified persons.
ASP Ali said he read the DNA report, however, he did not see whether it was stated as such.
The DNA report dated September 14, 2019, was handed to the witness and he read through it.
Mr Khan then told the court that the report stated there were three individuals’ DNA found.
He said out of five Hindu prayer items named Loban Dhoop, Chandan, Incense sticks, Kapoor, and Nutmeg, two DNA, which was found were unidentified while one DNA belonged to Isoof.
Mr Khan questioned the witness whether he knew who the other two unknown and unidentified persons were, to which ASP Ali said no.
Mr Khan asked the witness, did the Police investigate the others’ DNA, to which ASP Ali said no.
Mr Khan suggested to the witness that the vehicle shown in the CCTV footage was not used by Isoof.
However, ASP Ali said as per their analysis, it was the same vehicle.
Voir Dire Ruling:
Justice Rajasinghe ruled that having considered the Constitution and the rights of a person, he found the evidence of obtaining bodily sample was to be done while protecting the right of the person.
He said the court accepted the evidence of Woman Police Constable Ilisepeci Ratusaki as reliable and truthful.
He said the Prosecution had proved beyond reasonable doubt that the consent of the accused was obtained during the DNA sample.
He allowed the DNA evidence to be presented in court during the trial.
Prosecution Witness 28: Sergeant Jemesa Lave.
Sergeant Lave, who is based with the Fiji Police Force Narcotics Bureau, took the stand and informed the court that he was asked by Inspector Jitoko to examine some mobile phones regarding this case.
He said he and some other officers were at Sofitel in Nadi for training when he received two mobile phones from Inspector Jitoko sealed in the evidence bag.
He said he was not informed of who owned them, but were smartphones.
Sergeant Lave said he handed the mobile phones to Corporal Savenaca for the extraction of the report.
Prosecution Witness 29: Corporal Savenaca Siwatibau
Corporal Siwatibau told the court that he had received about 12 or 13 mobile phones in total to conduct the extraction report.
He said two were received from Sergeant Jemesa while 11 were from the Investigating Officer.
He said the investigators wanted an inspection report and the activities of the phone on August 25, 2019.
He added he performed the extraction procedures and connected the mobile phones to the machine named UFED Touch 2.
Corporal Siwatibau said the machine identifies the phone by its model, make, the year of manufacture, where it was issued, software component, security versions, and operating system.
The trial yesterday continued till 6pm.
For the afternoon bits of yesterday’s trial, you can read more in tomorrow’s paper.