Court upholds murder conviction

DEATH row inmate Mukesh Chandradath has lost his appeal against his conviction and sentence.

Chandradath, who asked the court to set him free and order compensation for his incarceration, condemned his trial at the appeal, which he argued himself.

In a written decision delivered today, Justices of Appeal Alice Yorke-Soo Hon, Rajendra Narine and Gregory Smith held that none of his arguments could be sustained, and that he had had a fair trial.

Chandradath had advanced a series of complaints against the police who charged him with murder in 1999; the prosecution; his defence attorneys at both his trials and the preliminary inquiry; the Chief Justice;the judge at his second trial; a former DPP; and prison authorities.

He also asked for $1 billion in compensation.

Chandradath was convicted of the 1999 murders of an elderly couple, Selwyn Grant, 65 and his wife Ursula Innis, 70, of Allen Drive, Syne Village, Penal. Innis’s decomposing, headless body was found in the bathtub by her grandson on September 16, 1999. The next day her head was found in a bag in a water tank. Grant’s body, in an advanced state of decomposition, was found under an abandoned tank in the yard. His head was in a bag secured with wire.

At the appeal, Chandradath complained police had tampered with evidence, including a post-mortem certificate prepared by pathologist Dr Ramnath Chandulal. He said because the certificate was tampered with, it could not be relied on by the prosecution and without it, the State could not prove the cause of death.

As a result, he submitted, a charge of murder could not be made out and this ought to have been considered by the then DPP, who consequently filed a defective indictment against him.

He also complained that evidence tampered with by the police was withheld at his trial, and that the indictment was defective because his real name of Mukesh Ramkissoon did not appear in it.

It was argued by the State that throughout his trial, and even at the appeal, he answered to the name Mukesh Chandradath.

He also accused the police of falsifying and concealing evidence and fabricating an alleged confession statement, and called on the court to deal with his recalcitrant trial lawyers who “deliberately failed to comply” with his instructions, which, he said, led to an unfair trial and conviction.

In its reply to the submissions, state attorneys Travers Sinanan and assistant director of Public Prosecutions Angelica Teelucksingh argued there was no merit in any of Chandradath’s complaints.

They submitted that the convicted killer failed to substantiate any of his grounds with evidence, suffered no prejudice at either of his trials in 2003 or 2011, and even benefited from the directions of the judge in the second trial.