Court Sets Father, Son, Friends Free

Four men who were charged with murder, yesterday walked out of court freed of all accusations.

This comes after the High Court in Lautoka dismissed the case of a 45-year-old Nadi man, his juvenile son and his two friends after the State filed a nolle prosequi finding that the evidences against the four did not support the charge of mur­der.

Shailendra Prasad, his 17-year-old juvenile son, Mohammed Shafim Khan, 22 and Muni Vishal Nair, 19 had each been charged with one count of murder as they were alleged to have been involved in the death of Mun Reddy at Malo­lo, Nadi last year.

The case was heard before High Court Judge, Justice Daniel Goundar.

Defence

It was alleged that on December 17, 2020 the four men including Mr Reddy were drinking when he allegedly fell on a survey peg on a piece of land and died.

Defence counsel Iqbal Khan who represented the four made an ap­plication for bail on January 6 be­fore Magistrate Nilima Fernandez at the Magistrates Court in Nadi.

Mr Khan made this bail applica­tion on the basis that the disclo­sures did not support the charge of murder but it was a brawl caused by the victim and as a result of pulling and pushing, the victim landed on the land peg and died.

However bail was only accepted for the juvenile and the case was then transferred to the High Court in Lautoka.

Mr Khan had therefore made an­other application for bail on Feb­ruary 3 before High Court Judge, Justice Chamath Morais and bail was granted to all four men.

On October 21, via a zoom session with Justice Goundar, the State had told the Court of withdrawing its charges against all the four ac­cused persons.

They were approximately re­manded for 43 days before being granted bail by the High Court in Lautoka.

Yesterday, State lawyer Joeli Nasa told the Court the State made an application to discontinue the pro­ceedings and filed a nolle prosequi.

Justice Goundar informed the four men that they were dis­charged and free to leave.

Mr Prasad

Speaking to the Fiji Sun yester­day, Mr Prasad said he was emo­tional knowing that he would be home in peace now with his family.

“It has been a long journey for me and my family, this is the happiest day of my life,” he said.

His wife, Sarojani said she was longing for this day to see her fam­ily return.

“I thank Mr Khan for his hard work in bringing my family back to me,” she said.