Resh­ma Ra­goonath

De­fence at­tor­ney El Farouk Ho­sein yes­ter­day called for mur­der charges against Kr­ish­na Ram­per­sad and his for­mer wife Hil­da Don­na Bul­lock to be dis­charged. The cou­ple is charged with the 2002 mur­ders of San?Fer­nan­do busi­ness cou­ple Ma­hase and Dol­ly Ram­per­sad.

Yes­ter­day Ho­sein, stand­ing be­fore act­ing Deputy?Chief Mag­is­trate Ra­jen­dra Ram­bachan, sub­mit­ted that Ram­per­sad and Bul­lock be dis­charged and when the state is ready with its case they could be brought back be­fore the court. On a pre­vi­ous oc­ca­sion state pros­e­cu­tor Trevor Jones, who was ab­sent from yes­ter­day's hear­ing, said 50 wit­ness state­ments were to be filed in the mat­ter.

Ho­sein, who ap­pears for Bul­lock, and at­tor­ney Sub­has Pan­day, who rep­re­sents Ram­per­sad, con­tend­ed that the state was slow in dis­clos­ing state­ments. They made the point yes­ter­day when the mat­ter was called in the San Fer­nan­do First?Court. Ram­bachan said he was not go­ing to dis­charge the cou­ple since Jones was not in court to make any sub­mis­sions. Ho­sein said in the last two months 20 state­ments have been dis­closed to the de­fence.

Pan­day said the state­ments could "im­pli­cate no­body." He said it was "on­ly bush, no trump." Ram­bachan agreed with the at­tor­ney that the mat­ter should be start­ed soon. Ram­per­sad, 37, and Bul­lock, 27, of Ram­bert Vil­lage, San Fer­nan­do, are charged with mur­der­ing the cou­ple on an un­known day be­tween Au­gust 3 and Au­gust 8, 2002, at La For­tune Road, Wood­land. The mat­ter has been ad­journed to No­vem­ber 6.

The Ram­per­sads, who found­ed Mas­ka Ltd and M Ram­per­sad Au­to Sup­plies in San Fer­nan­do, were kid­napped in 2002 in the dri­ve­way of their home on Ben­net Dri­ve, Palmiste. Four days lat­er, their bod­ies were found stuffed in the trunk of Ma­hase's Mer­cedes Benz car, off a trace in Wood­land. They were shot in the back of their heads and their skulls crushed.