Groves family is looking for safe outcome in trial
THE family of Sarah Groves will step up their efforts to force a safe outcome in the trial of the man accused of her murder in 2019.
Richard De Wit denies murdering Miss Groves on a houseboat in Kashmir in April 2013.
The trial, which has been hampered by a series of delays, again failed to make progress at the 146th scheduled hearing.
No witnesses appeared and the accused was not brought to court because of disturbances near Srinagar Central Jail.
Of 37 scheduled hearings in 2018, 30 were deferred without progress. Only four witnesses were fully heard.
The Groves family say that the trial has effectively ground to a halt and are particularly unhappy that avoidable delays in getting witnesses to attend court have not been addressed. They have been trying to get a new prosecutor to replace Mohammad Sultan to overcome that.
On 9 October, the judge had agreed to write a letter to the Law Department requesting the prosecutor’s replacement, with similar requests coming from de Wit’s defence counsel.
But the court records show no evidence of the letter being sent.
‘We will now be writing our own letter to the Law Department highlighting the ineffectiveness of Mr Sultan as prosecutor in the case with a request for his immediate replacement,’ said Vic and Kate Groves in a statement.
‘Various other steps are going on in the background to retrieve the situation. We thank you for your support and ongoing interest in this farcical trial. We end this year in the hope that a safe outcome will be reached in 2019 and that the first meaningful stage of closure can be achieved.’
The next hearing is scheduled for Wednesday 16 January.
