The 25-year-old man accused of killing 77-year-old Danrasie Ganesh in her Montrose home pleaded not guilty to the charge as it proceeded today at the High Court before Justice Navindra Singh.
Colin Allen, also known as Colis Williams or Bonus, denied the charge which alleged that on August 01, 2015, in the county of Demerara, he murdered Ganesh, also known as ‘Carmen’.
Attorney-at-law Rachael Bakker is representing Allen, formerly of Timehri, East Bank Demerara while State Counsel Tuanna Harding, Abigail Gibbs and Teriq Mohamed are appearing for the prosecution.
According to Prosecutor Gibbs, Ganesh lived alone at Montrose, East Coast Demerara and on the day in question she was visited by an unwanted guest, Allen, who was unknown to her.
Gibbs told the jury that Allen entered the woman’s house as though he knew her and murdered her. The dead woman’s daughter Basmattie Ganesh testified that her mother lived alone at Lot 121 Montrose, East Coast Demerara.
Questioned by Prosecutor Harding as to whether her mother owned that property, Basmattie replied “no”, adding that she was taking care of it for a neighbour who has migrated to “foreign.” She said that she last saw her mother alive on Friday, July 31, 2015 when she gave her something to eat.
According to the daughter, one of her mother’s neighbour phoned her and informed her that something was amiss with her mother since she had failed to come outside on the morning of August 01, 2015 to clean the yard, a practice usual to her.
As a result, Basmattie who told the court that she resided at Lot 188 Montrose, East Coast Demerara, said that she rushed over to her mother’s house where she saw a wrong key stuck in the padlock to the front gate. This, she said, caused her brother and nephew to jump over the front gate to gain entry into the yard. Once in the yard, the witness recalled that they went into the house using a side door which was left opened.
According to her, she found her mother lying motionless in a pool of blood inside the kitchen and police were later summoned. At this point in her testimony, Basmattie sobbed intermittently as she recounted seeing marks of violence on her mother’s head.
She said that police ranks inquired of her if her mother and anybody had problems and she told them yes, that her mother was embroiled in some problems over a land, “but it done a long time ago.” Further, she added that police ranks also inquired of her if the property had camera and she told them “yes”, after which ranks went to the upper flat of the building where they reviewed CCTV footage from which she saw the “bandit’s foot”.
After seeing this, a crying Basmattie said that she ran downstairs.
Also testifying was a neighbour of the deceased Rex Mangru, an engineer of Lot 150 Montrose, East Coast Demerara. He testified to knowing Danrasie for over 20 years since, according to him, she was his western neighbour. He said that on the morning of August 01, 2015, he came downstairs to clean his yard and didn’t saw Danrasie in her yard cleaning. “It was normal for her (Danrasie) to clean up before me,” Mangru told the jury.
He said that around 10:00hrs that said day, he phoned Danrasie’s daughter and asked of her to check on her mother since he had not seen her outside, nor did she answer when he and other neighbours called out for her. He said that the woman’s daughter came over and the two of them along with others relatives rushed into the house where they found her lying in a pool of blood inside the kitchen.
This trial is continuing. The prosecution is expected to call 10 more witnesses including police ranks, civilians and a pathologist.
