FOLLOWING the closure of the prosecution’s case in the Non Pariel carnal knowledge trial yesterday, 33-year old accused Rajendra Gossai called ‘Jetley’, who is accused of having carnal knowledge of a 14-year old girl in 2004, led an alibi defence. He said he was somewhere else at the time the offence was committed.
The prosecution  led by Ms. Konyo Sandiford and Ms. Zamilla Ali provided  evidence to support their contention that the accused had invaded the Non Pariel home where the girl lived with her parents and forced her to have sexual intercourse with him.
But the accused defended by Attorney-at-Law, Mr. Peter Hugh, denied the statutory rape allegation and claimed that at the time of the commission of the alleged crime, he was at Linden working with a contractor in the construction of a building.
Rajendra who had lived at his mother’s residence at Non Pariel, said that he moved out of Non Pariel since 2003 when he got married and had been living at Hadfield Street with his wife since then.
According to him, on the morning of September 4,2004 he and his boss and other workers left Linden for Georgetown where they had some errands to make.
They carried out their task and were back in Linden about midday and were at work in the afternoon when the offence is alleged to have been committed.
The accused who made a sworn statement from the witness box said that he did not enter the girl’s home on that day as alleged and never had sexual intercourse with her.
A witness who was regarded as a star witness for the prosecution could not be located and the prosecutor had to close her case without his evidence.
The present trial is a re-trial. The first trial resulted in the jury disagreeing on a verdict, as such the then trial judge ordered a retrial.
Defence counsel and the prosecuting lawyer will address the jury on Monday.
Justice Roxanne George will sum up the evidence on Tuesday after which she would hand over the case to the jury for their consideration and verdict.