THE “traffic light” murder which took place at the junction of Regent Street and Vlissengen Road, Georgetown, in the vicinity of the Botanical Gardens on August 18, 2014 in which dredge owner Ashokkoemar Ragghu was killed during the furtherance of a robbery, began in the Georgetown High Court on Tuesday before Justice Navindra Singh and a 12-member jury.

The jury was empanelled on Monday and on trial is Travis Mc Dougall, who in the company of another, is accused of shooting and killing Ragghu at the traffic light when he had stopped to obey the signals.
State prosecutor Tuanna Hardy told the court that on the day in question, Ragghu and his wife Shyrazadi were in a motor car that had stopped at the traffic light, when two men rode up on a motorcycle and took away their belongings.

She related that Ragghu was pronounced dead on arrival at GPHC while his wife survived.
The state is expected to call 18 witnesses.
On Tuesday, the daughters of the deceased testified. Vinata Dabbie said in 2014 she was living with her parents and a sister at Lot 77 Pike Street, Kitty.
She recalled that on August 18, 2014, at about 11:30hrs her parents left home in a car to conduct business and they seemed normal.

The witness added that she later received a telephone call from her mother and she went to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation and spoke to her mother who was in a conscious condition, while her father was unconscious.
Her sibling, Varishma Ragghu-Singh said on August 20, 2014, that she along with her sister visited the GPHC mortuary where they identified the body of their father to a policeman in the presence of government pathologist Dr Nehaul Singh.
She noted that her father’s funeral took place on August 30, 2014.

Police witness Terrence Browne testified that he was present at the mortuary when the daughters of Ragghu identified the body of their father in the presence of Dr Singh, who conducted a post- mortem and gave the cause of death.
He said he collected a multi-coloured jersey with what appeared to be bloodstains and a hole in front and placed it in an evidence bag for safe-keeping.
An application was made by state prosecutor for the jersey to be marked, tendered and admitted as evidence in the trial and was granted by Justice Singh.

Another police witness, Mark Gasbar, took the stand on Tuesday when he testified that he was a crime scene investigator during 2014 and was stationed at the Crime Lab at Eve Leary CID and he processed the crime scene on the day in question.
Gasbar told the court he examined the car and observed a reddish substance which appeared to be blood on the front passenger side and about 2-3 inches away, he noticed what appears to be a suspected warhead.
He lodged it in a self-sealed evidence bag for safe-keeping, then took it to the Ballistics Section at CID Eve Leary and tendered same in the Magistrates Court.

An application was then made by State Prosecutor Tuanna Hardy for the suspected warhead to be shown to the witness, who identified it as the same one he had collected from the crime scene, based on his initials.
The application as granted by Justice Singh after which the suspected warhead was marked, tendered and admitted as evidence in the trial.
Detective Inspector Herbert Henry took the stand and told the court that relative to a report of an alleged murder committed on Ragghu, he visited the crime scene and observed a burgundy-coloured car parked in the centre of Vlissengen Road outside the Botanical Gardens, facing south.

He stated that he observed what appears to be blood on the driver’s seat and the front passenger seat and he received some information, after which he visited the GPHC and interviewed the wife of the deceased.
He related that she gave him the description of the men involved in the robbery/murder and he also observed a lifeless body which the wife identified as her husband with what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the upper right side of the chest.
Henry added that Mrs Ragghu had what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the upper right thigh and she told him something, after which he contacted the accused at Brickdam Police Station and told him he would like to have a confrontation with him and one Jermaine Otto, who is now deceased. But he refused.

During cross-examination by defence counsel Nigel Hughes, Henry said he got the description of the suspects from Mrs Ragghu which wasn’t vague and there were no eyewitnesses at the scene and he had no licence plate number for the motorcycle involved.
Henry told the court after being questioned that he did not request footage from CCTV cameras mounted on the traffic light at Vlissengen Road and Regent Street, but he thought it was important being the officer-in-charge of the probe then.

Inspector Leslie Eastman testified that he was attached to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) Section in 2014 and he was tasked with viewing live feed from the cameras around the city.
He told the court that he did not receive any requests for footage from the CCTV cameras at the crime scene, but the technicians received the request and he was told there was no footage.
When cross-examined by Nigel Hughes, Eastman stated that a photograph was circulated among a whatsApp group which consisted of police officers in 2014 which depicted the men involved in the incident but did not make a copy.

Detective Corporal Derwin Eastman testified that in 2014 he was attached to the CID at the Brickdam Police Station and on August 19, 2014, he was on patrol in an unmarked police vehicle with a party of ranks in uniform when he received certain information.
He added that he and other ranks had a briefing with a senior officer after which they went to a house at East Ruimveldt Back Circle and made contact with the accused and identified themselves as police officers by showing their police identification cards.

The accused was told that it was alleged that while being in the company of another armed man,he had robbed Ragghu and in the process shot and killed him.
Eastman said the accused was then cautioned and he remained silent, after which a search was conducted on the premises in the presence of the accused and a purple helmet they were looking for was found.
Eastman added that he took possession of same and arrested the accused.
The matter continues today when more witnesses are expected to testify.

Ragghu and his wife Shyrazadi were in their motorcar when they stopped at the traffic light at Vlissengen Road and Regent Street. Two men rode up on a CG motorcycle at the driver’s side. It had been further alleged that one of the men grabbed a haversack containing $4M, but Shyrazadi held on to it even as she was shot in the thigh.
Ragghu was pronounced dead on arrival at the Georgetown Public Hospital. In July 2015, Travis McDougal was committed to stand trial for murder along with pork-knocker Jermaine Otto, who was one of the prisoners who perished in the deadly Camp Street prison fire, following riots in March last year.