THE eyewitness in the Bush Lot murder case, at the Berbice Assizes, recounted, to Justice James Bovell-Drakes and the mixed jury, on Wednesday, how the accused had handed him a bag with prasad (sweet meat), before  forcefully taking his cutlass and fatally chopping 17-year-old Darashanan Ramanan called ‘Tato’ on his neck. Vishal Dayaram nicknamed ‘Texas’ said, on September 20, 2009, he had left home at 10:00hrs and gone to the backlands where he weeded overgrown grass and then opened the sluice door aback of Bush Lot, West Coast Berbice.
On his return to the village, during afternoon hours, he saw his friend Tato sitting on a concrete column, which was over the drain at North Pole Street.
The witness said he stopped and spoke to the other man, for a while, before continuing on his way with his  cutlass in his left hand.
Dayaram said he, later met ‘Bado’, ‘Sweet’ and ‘Boi’, and also talked to them and it was during that conversation that Ramesh Sahadeo nicknamed ‘Bado’, asked to borrow the cutlass.
The witness said he told Sahadeo he could not lend the tool. It was then the man handed him the bag with the sweetmeat and pulled the weapon away by its handle.
Dayaram said he was holding the cutlass just under the handle but let it go as he did not want it to cut his hand.
Continuing his testimony, the witness said ‘Bado’ then walked over to ‘Tato’ and told him:”Last night you all was bad man, what happen today”. They started to argue on the dam where ‘Sweet’ and ‘Boi’ were closer to ‘Bado’ and ‘Tato’, who went and picked up a brick about five inches in diameter.
“Bodo said:’Don’t argue with me before I got to chop your neck’. ‘Tato’ had the brick in his hand when ‘Bado’ took the cutlass and fired a chop at ‘Tato’s neck. ‘Tato’ put his hand on his neck and he walked over the nearby drain, into the street where he fell.
“I observed blood flowing from his hands while he was holding his neck,” said Dayaram, who added that ‘Bado’ left the scene with the cutlass and headed in the direction of the backlands where he remained until the  arrival of the police and other villagers.
Cross-examined by State appointed Defence Counsel Tania Warren Clements, the witness said he could not say whether anyone saw him going to the backlands because no one was with him when he opened the sluice door.
He conceded that no one could say he had the cutlass at the koker. Nevertheless, he said ‘Tato’ was his good friend and he did not like what happened to him.
Usually busy
The witness agreed that the street on which the incident occurred was usually busy but he did not remember looking at the nearby houses to determine whether anyone was at home.
He denied encouraging the now deceased to assault the accused.
In her opening address, State Prosecutor Rhondel Weaver said Ramanan was pronounced dead at Fort Wellington Hospital and a post mortem examination said he died from shock and haemorrhage along with an incised wound to the neck.
The Prosecutor said she would lead direct evidence to prove that it was the accused who inflicted the injuries, resulting in the death of Ramanan, within a day and a year.
She submitted that, when the injuries were inflicted, they were intended to cause grievous bodily harm and not in self- defence nor following provocation.
The trial continues on Tuesday.