Defence in Sharma witness tampering PI maintains prosecution’s case is inconsistent

Attorney Waldron last week made oral submissions to the court on behalf of his client Mark Reid, who is accused along with Ravi Mangar of tampering with witnesses in the carnal knowledge matter for which CN Sharma has been charged.

The defence, which includes Waldron and attorney Vic Puran who is representing Mangar, has made a no-case submission, contending that the facts of the prosecution are inconsistent.

Waldron, in his address to the court, argued that the evidence of the prosecution “is so manifestly unreliable that no reasonable tribunal could safely convict on it.”

The lawyer stressed that various witnesses in their evidence-in-chief presented conflicting accounts of the stories to the court while on the stand. Counsel further stated that this inconsistency clearly points to the fact that there are untruths being related to the court as all the stories cannot be accurate.

It is on these grounds that the defence re-emphasised that it will maintain its position of a no-case submission.

After the submissions by the defence, the prosecution was supposed to have replied. State prosecutor Sanjeev Datadin, however, requested another date to respond to the submissions made by the defence.

Magistrate Geeta Chandan Edmond, who is presiding over the matter at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court, then granted a May 3 adjournment for the prosecution’s reply.

The magistrate also reminded the attorneys that they were still to lay over their authorities to the court.

The prosecution closed its case in the matter on April 14, as the preliminary inquiry came to an end.

The matter against the two accused stem from the alleged carnal knowledge of two females for which Chandra Narine Sharma has been charged.

On April 26, Sharma was charged with attempting to obstruct the course of justice.

It is alleged that on April 15, he knowingly attempted to obstruct the course of justice by removing two of the girls at the centre of sex abuse allegations against him from their known address and taking them to a house at Golden Grove, East Bank Demerara in order to prevent them from being questioned by police.