DPP lawyer Yogesh Prasad today told the Suva High Court that a pathologist has refused to cooperate with them in a murder case after the Parveen Bala case.
Prasad made this comment while making an application before Justice Salesi Temo for a substitute pathologist to give evidence in the murder trial of Tarun Kumar Rawat who is alleged to have murdered a man near Denarau, Nadi in July 2011.
Prasad told the court that Dr. Ponnu Sami Goundar is in Brisbane and is not answering his calls.
Justice Temo has allowed the DPP to use a substitute pathologist to give evidence as a state witness.
While opening the state’s case this morning DPP lawyer Shivendra Nath told the court that Tarun Kumar Rawat who was in a sexual relationship with the man had punched him after a dispute and also threw a stone which landed on the deceased’s head.
The first state witness, Laitia Raiyasi who was a Police officer at Nadi Police station during the time of the alleged incident told the court that he arrested Rawat from his girlfriend’s house in Saunaka village.
The trial continues this afternoon.
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