The lead in­ves­ti­ga­tor in­to the kid­nap­ping and mur­der of busi­ness­woman Vin­dra Naipaul-Cool­man is ex­pect­ed to tes­ti­fy in her mur­der tri­al to­day.

When re­tired ACP Nad­hir Khan takes the wit­ness stand in the Port-of-Spain Sec­ond Crim­i­nal Court this morn­ing he is ex­pect­ed to give an overview of the sev­en-month-long po­lice in­ves­ti­ga­tion which led to the 12 ac­cused men be­ing charged with the crime.

Af­ter Khan com­pletes his tes­ti­mo­ny pros­e­cu­tors are ex­pect­ed to call six more wit­ness­es be­fore they close their case.

The state's main wit­ness, Keon Gloster, who com­plet­ed his tes­ti­mo­ny be­fore pre­sid­ing Judge Mal­colm Holdip and the 12-mem­ber ju­ry this week, claimed he was co­erced by po­lice in­to sign­ing a se­ries of sworn state­ments in which im­pli­cat­ed the ac­cused men.

To re­buff his claims, pros­e­cu­tors have brought sev­er­al homi­cide de­tec­tives who record­ed the state­ments to chal­lenge Gloster's tes­ti­mo­ny.

Tes­ti­fy­ing yes­ter­day was PC Ameer Mo­hammed, who as­sist­ed in record­ing two state­ments in June 2007 and in tak­ing Gloster to hos­pi­tal when he suf­fered an epilep­tic fit while in po­lice cus­tody.

Al­though Gloster claimed to be il­lit­er­ate in his tes­ti­mo­ny, Mo­hammed yes­ter­day said he was read both state­ments and signed them. "How long did he take to read the four pages?" de­fence at­tor­ney Ul­ric Sker­ritt asked while cross-ex­am­in­ing Mo­hammed. He said two to three min­utes.

Sker­ritt then ques­tioned whether Gloster was ever a sus­pect in the case.

"In these state­ments was he say­ing to you that he was present there and par­tic­i­pat­ed?" Sker­ritt asked.

Mo­hammed re­spond­ed: "I don't re­call ex­act­ly what he said but he did in­di­cate that he was present."

Naipaul-Cool­man was ab­duct­ed from her Ch­agua­nas home on De­cem­ber 19, 2006. A $122,000 ran­som was paid by her fam­i­ly but she was not re­leased and her body has nev­er been found.

Through Gloster's state­ments, which have been ten­dered in­to ev­i­dence af­ter he was deemed a hos­tile wit­ness, pros­e­cu­tors con­tend­ed the busi­ness­woman was held cap­tive in a house in Up­per La Puer­ta, Diego Mar­tin, be­fore she was even­tu­al­ly killed and her body dis­posed of.

De­fence at­tor­neys will com­plete Mo­hammed's cross-ex­am­i­na­tion this morn­ing be­fore Khan is al­lowed to tes­ti­fy.

WHO'S IN COURT

The dozen men be­fore the ju­ry and Jus­tice Mal­colm Holdip are: Al­lan "Scan­ny" Mar­tin, twin broth­ers Sher­von and De­von Pe­ters and their old­er broth­er An­tho­ny Dwayne Gloster, sib­lings Kei­da and Jamille Gar­cia, broth­ers Mar­lon and Earl Trim­ming­ham, Ronald Arm­strong, An­to­nio Charles, Joel Fras­er and Lyn­don James. A 13th man, Raphael Williams, was charged with the crime but died in prison in 2011 of com­pli­ca­tions from sick­le-cell anaemia.

LE­GAL TEAM

Their le­gal team in­cludes Ul­ric Sker­ritt, Joseph Pan­tor, Sel­wyn Mo­hammed, Lennox Sankers­ingh, Ian Brooks, Wayne Sturge, Mario Mer­ritt, Richard Valere, Kwe­si Bekoe, Col­in Selvon, Vince Charles, Chris­t­ian Chan­dler, Deli­cia Hel­wig and Alex­ia Romero. The pros­e­cu­tion team in­cludes Se­nior Coun­sel Is­rael Khan and Gilbert Pe­ter­son, who are be­ing as­sist­ed by se­nior state pros­e­cu­tors Joy Balka­ran and Kel­ly Thomp­son.