Act like a ‘saviour’

Witness: Isoof wanted to take family to NZ

MOHAMMED Raheesh Isoof tried to act like a saviour to the deceased family of five whose bodies were found in the Nausori Highlands in 2019.

Case investigating officer Sgt Anil Kumar said this when he took the stand as the State’s final witness yesterday in the case involving Mr Isoof who is facing murder charges for the deaths of Nirmal Kumar, 63, his wife Usha Devi, 54, their daughter Nileshni Kajal, 34, and Ms Kajal’s daughters Sanah Singh, 11 and Samarah Singh, 8.

Mr Kumar told the High Court in Lautoka that the accused made promises to the family that he would take them to New Zealand and offer them one of his five properties – where they would live and he would take them out of their miserable life of poverty.

The court was told that the investigating officer was given this information from close members of the deceased family and that whenever he visited Fiji, the Legalega, Nadi family, who were also his neighbours, would make him a special Indian delicacy whenever he visited their home.

Mr Kumar said he had established during the investigation that the accused did not own any property in New Zealand and was renting there.

Mr Kumar said during the course of investigations, he found out that Mr Isoof took a top-up loan of $7900 in July which was converted to $F10,000 at a money exchange outlet.

He said Mr Isoof arrived in Fiji on August 8, 2019, and was due to return to New Zealand on August 29 and police learnt of this from the accused’s airline e-ticket which he had tendered to police during investigations.

The investigating officer told the court that the accused himself showed him these documents. Mr Kumar said he did a thorough background check on Mr Isoof and it was established that he had joined the police special constabulary, also worked as a security guard, went to Australia and was deported from there, changed his name on the deed poll from Yusuf to Isoof.

Mr Kumar, an officer with 32 years’ experience, said the case was a serious matter and was one of its kind in Fiji and more than 50 officers from various units were involved in investigations which began on August 26, 2019, the day the five bodies were discovered in the highlands.

Mr Kumar shed tears when he told the court about the 11-month-old toddler who survived. He said it was a miracle she survived because “any wrong turn”, she would have ended up 150m at the bottom of a cliff and her body would not have been found. The senior police officer also told the court that a person of interest was brought to the Namaka Police Station on the same evening with the mobile phone and the driver’s licence of one of the deceased person, Nirmal Kumar, which was found inside the rental car the person of interest was driving.

He said police also could not recover the substantial amount of jewellery of the deceased, Usha Devi, and her daughter, Kajal, from their home.

Mr Kumar said 99 statements were recorded and 197 exhibits were tendered to prosecutors for the case.

In cross-examination, defence counsel Iqbal Khan asked the investigating officer if he made his summary report from exhibits and reports tendered to him, to which Mr Kumar said he did a summary of the case based on what was obtained from the investigations.

Mr Khan also asked the witness if he recalled a statement of a Howard Politini who had told police that he saw two vehicles parked at the S bend in the highlands between 7pm and 8pm of the day in question, to which Mr Kumar said the S bend was far away from the scene.

Mr Khan asked the witness why he had not taken into consideration footage and pictures provided to him by some witnesses and the witness said some of these footage were taken 10km away from the crime scene.

The witness was also asked if he made attempts to locate the DNA of unidentified individuals found in some of the items and the investigating officer said it could have been of the cashier or the packer from the supermarket and the only person at the scene was the accused.

The prosecution also made a submission for a site visit of the crime scene and they told Justice Thushara Rajasinghe the exercise would give a better understanding and view of the terrain.

However, the defence objected to the site visit stating that the place would have changed after two years, however, the prosecution argued the only purpose would be to show the location and where the bodies were found.

A ruling would be made today on the submission made by the prosecution.