A witness in the Nausori Highlands murder trial claims that witchcraft was performed on one of the victims’ as it was recorded on one of the deceased’s phone.

The audio recording of the alleged performance was found on the phone of the deceased, Nirmal Kumar. This was the testimony of state prosecution’s 52nd witness, Rajesh Kumar.

He is the older brother of the deceased Nirmal Kumar.

The recording was presented in court on Tuesday night, the 11th day of the trial before judge Justice Thushara Rajasinghe at the High Court in Lautoka.

Rajesh told the court that the audio recording was about witchcraft rituals being performed over Nirmal’s wife Usha (deceased) by the murder accused Muhammed Raheesh Isoof.

Isoof (herein referred to as Kamal) is alleged to have murdered Nirmal Kumar, 63, his wife Usha Devi, 54, their daughter Nileshni Kajal, 34, and Ms Kajal’s daughters Sanah Singh, 11, Samarah Singh, 8 at Nausori Highlands in August 2019. He is also charged with one count of attempted murder of Samaira Kumar who was found abandoned near the bodies of five deceased persons.

The State prosecutors are Semi Babitu, Taitusi Tuenuku, and Prenika Lata from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

The defence counsel is Iqbal Khan from Iqbal Khan and Associates.

Trial Day 11 (Continuation):

Prosecution Witness 49: Senior Scientific Officer Naomi Tuitoga

Ms Tuitoga is a senior scientific officer based at the Forensic Bio and DNA Lab at the Police Academy in Nasova, Suva.

During the investigation of this case, Ms Tuitoga had overseen the analysis of forensic exhibits and the DNA samples that were submitted for examination.

It was highlighted in court by Ms Tuitoga that there were three DNA samples found on the prayer items from the crime scene that were tendered as evidence. She had testified that two of the DNA were of unidentified and unknown persons while the other was of Isoof, to read the full account from our reporter Ashna Kumar, do so by subscribing to the Fiji Sun e-edition.

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