Preliminary inquiry into Rampersad murders: State has 19 witness statements to disclose

The State is not set to begin the preliminary inquiry into the 2002 murders of San Fernando business couple Mahase and Dolly Rampersad as it is still in the process of disclosing some 19 witness statements. Yesterday the Rampersad’s nephew, Krishna Rampersad, and his ex-wife Hilda Donna Bullock, reappeared in the San Fernando First Court before acting deputy Chief Magistrate Rajendra Rambachan charged with killing the couple.

State prosecutor, Trevor Jones, told the court he was not ready in the matter since, “We have 19 further witness statements to disclose.” Rampersad, 37, and Bullock, 27, both 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. 

 

Cpl Terry Tambie laid the charges. 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, off a trace in Woodland. They were shot in the back of their heads and their skulls crushed. Autopsy reports concluded that death was due to cerebral injuries. Jones said Tambie was out of the country. Yesterday defence attorney El Farouk Hosein, who represents Bullock, complained that he was still waiting for disclosure from the State. “I have been waiting on that for so long,” he said. The matter has been adjourned to September 27.