THE mother of Babita Sarjou took the witness stand before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan on Wednesday as the Preliminary Inquiry (PI) into the murder of her daughter continues at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court.Sarjou’s ex-husband, Sharnandand Narine, called ‘Anand’ of Lot 51 Seaforth Street, Campbellville, Georgetown and Darel Ponton called ‘Yankee’ of Lot 54 Broad Street, Charlestown are on remand for Sarjou’s murder.

The mother, Champa Seonarine, a farmer of Timehri, East Bank Demerara, recalled the last time she saw her daughter. Led by Police Prosecutor Inspector Neville Jeffers, Seonarine also identified several pieces of clothing and jewellery that were dug up from the shallow grave, as her daughter’s belongings.

Detective Inspector Suraj Singh, formerly of the Major Crimes Unit of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), also testified. Additionally, the dead woman’s sister, Sunita Sarjou, is expected to testify, along with a niece and another police witness on Thursday.

On Tuesday, the Post Mortem (PM) report of Sarjou, her cell phone records from the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T), along with video footage of investigators digging up her skeletal remains, was tendered into evidence.

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, the case was closed. However in 2016, 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 Ponton GY$50,000 and had promised him a trip to Trinidad if he killed Sarjou