CHIEF Magistrate Ann McLennan on Thursday admitted into evidence the caution and oral statements given to detectives by Darrel Ponton, called ‘Yankee’, in the preliminary inquiry (PI) into the murder of Babita Sarjou.Ponton, of 54 Broad Street, Charlestown, is charged along with Sarjou’s ex-husband Sharadananda Narine, called ‘Anand’, of 51 Seaforth Street, Campbellville, with the murder of Babita Sarjou, whose body was found in a shallow grave at the back of her ex-husband’s yard on May 22, almost six years after she had mysteriously disappeared.

The statements that Ponton gave detectives at the Criminal Investigation Department will now be used by Police Prosecutor Inspector Neville Jeffers in his case against the accused duo.

The chief magistrate had ordered the voir dire to inquire into the circumstances under which Pronton’s statements were made, and she has ruled that based on the evidence tendered in the voir dire (trial within a trial) and the testimonies given by the five police witnesses called, she is satisfied that Ponton had given the statements freely and voluntarily, and in accordance with the Judge’s Rules.

The court has continued the voir dire to inquire into the circumstances under which Naraine had allegedly given a caution statement to detectives, with Prosecutor Neville Jeffers calling four police ranks -– two of whom are attached to the Major Crimes Investigations Unit -– to testify on November 25.

It is alleged that on November 4, 2010, Sarjou left her Timehri, East Bank Demerara home, informing her mother that she was going to meet her husband and son at the Kitty Seawall to view the annual Diwali Motorcade. When she did not return home that night, her mother became worried and filed a missing person’s report.

After many months of searching and treating the case as a missing person’s one, the case was closed. However, earlier this year, Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum reopened the case, treating it as a homicide, since new information had surfaced.

Following new investigations into the matter, Sarjou’s estranged husband was questioned, and he subsequently led the investigating team to the shallow grave of Babita Sarjou, which had been dug in his own backyard.

Investigations have also revealed that Narine had paid Pronton Gy$50,000 and had promised him a trip to Trinidad if he were to kill Sarjou, since Narine had begun to think that Sarjou had been having an affair with a man from her workplace.