Cop grilled about CCTV in Pike Street murder trial

May 11, 2017 Court Stories, Features / Columnists, News

Police Corporal Derwin Eastman yesterday faced a series of questions in relation to the investigations into the murder of Pike Street Businessman, Ashok Raghu.

Travis Mc Dougal

Raghu was shot and killed on August 18, 2014, during the furtherance of a robbery at Vlissengen Road in the vicinity of the Botanical Gardens.
Travis Mc Dougal is indicted for the murder. Justice Navindra Singh is presiding over his trial at the Georgetown High Court.
Yesterday, Eastman gave the court an account of viewing a surveillance tape in which the suspect was wearing a purple helmet and riding a motorcycle.
Under questioning by State Prosecutor Tuanna Hardy, the policeman also told the court that when the accused was detained, the purple helmet was found in his possession.
Under cross-examination by Defence Counsel, Nigel Hughes, the policeman explained that the footage was taken from a surveillance camera at Rubis Service station —-about 400 yards away from the scene of the shooting.
Hughes then suggested to the policeman that the distance between where the camera was located and the crime scene would make it difficult to see anything in that vicinity.
Eastman maintained that he viewed the footage from the Rubis station CCTV.
Questioned further, the witness said that he could not say, at present, where the footage from the Close Circuit Television Camera (CCTV) can be obtained.
The policeman said later that he never saw the footage again.
He admitted, too, that the footage was never shown to the accused.
After responding with a series of “I can’t recall,” to the questions about the surveillance tape by defence counsel, the Judge made an order for a copy of the footage to be presented to the Court.
On Tuesday a Crime Scene Investigator, (CSI) testifying in the trial recalled that a warhead and samples of blood were collected from the vicinity where Pike Street businessman was allegedly shot.
CSI Mark Gasper told the court that he visited the scene of the shooting along with a party of policemen.
According to Gasper, the officers collected warheads and what was suspected to be blood at the scene of the crime. The policeman recalled that the samples were collected and placed in an evidence bag.
The policeman’s evidence followed the presentation of evidence by the daughter of the deceased.
Vinata Raghu told the court that on the day of the incident, her parents left their home; her father was carrying his usual black haversack. She said she was not sure what was in the bag
The witness said that the next time she saw her parents was at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation, (GPHC). Her father, she said, was unconscious but her mother was awake. She spoke to her mother.
According to Raghu her mother had called her; she immediately left and went to the emergency room of the GPHC.
Initial reports had indicated that Raghu of Pike Street, Campbellville, was shot in the chest, while his wife, Shyrazadi Raghu, was shot in the thigh by two gunmen on a motorcycle, who cornered them at the Vlissengen and Regent Road traffic light.
The robbers escaped with a bag containing an undisclosed sum of cash and the slain man’s licenced handgun.
Raghu operated a gold mining operation at Arimu Backdam, Cuyuni, and the family recently moved from Berbice to Georgetown.
Raghu had picked up his wife from a city bank and was heading south along Vlissengen Road when they were forced to stop at the traffic light near the Botanical Gardens.
The gunmen then rode up to the couple’s Toyota Carina, PGG 8291 and tried to relieve the businessman of his money.
One of the robbers shot Raghu when he resisted. The businessman was pronounced dead on arrival at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation, (GPHC).

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