Resh­ma Ra­goonath

Kasim Mo­hammed, own­er of the Gas­par­il­lo mi­ni-mart Daniel Guer­ra vis­it­ed short­ly be­fore his dis­ap­pear­ance, was the first wit­ness to tes­ti­fy as the State be­gan its pre­lim­i­nary in­quiry in­to the child's mur­der. Deputy Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions (South) Joan Hon­ore-Paul called on Mo­hammed, the first of two wit­ness­es, to tes­ti­fy at the in­quiry in which po­lice de­tec­tive Dar­win Ghouralal, 41, of La Ro­main, is charged with Daniel's mur­der. Mo­hammed tes­ti­fied for one-and-a-half hours on Fri­day be­fore act­ing deputy Chief Mag­is­trate Ra­jen­dra Ram­bachan in the San Fer­nan­do First Court. De­fence lawyer Sophia Chote, who to­geth­er with at­tor­ney Michelle Solomon, in­struct­ed by at­tor­ney Trevor Clarke rep­re­sent­ed Ghouralal, briefly cross-ex­am­ined Mo­hammed.

Mo­hammed is one of 35 wit­ness­es Hon­ore-Paul, in­struct­ed by at­tor­neys Lisa Singh and Kr­ish­na Jaglal, in­tends to call on to tes­ti­fy. Sergeant An­der­son Pa­ri­man, who charged Ghouralal, is al­so ex­pect­ed to tes­ti­fy. At 9.40 am on Fri­day, Ghouralal, dressed in a blue suit with a lime green shirt and match­ing tie, emerged from the cell dock for the start of the in­quiry. Hon­ore-Paul al­so re­quest­ed sum­mons for wit­ness­es, in­clud­ing Guer­ra's grand­fa­ther Ran­dolph In­dars­ingh, for the hear­ing to­mor­row. She said the pros­e­cu­tion will call all the wit­ness­es to give ev­i­dence. Daniel's se­mi-de­com­posed body was found float­ing in the Tarou­ba Riv­er, miles away from his Be­deau Street, Gas­par­il­lo home days af­ter he dis­ap­peared on Feb­ru­ary 18.