The lawyer representing a 25-year-old Papua New Guinea national in a case involving the death of a 54-year-old Fijian man said he was “shocked” by Magistrate Jagath Hemantha’s decision to deny the University of the South Pacific student bail.
Rolland Taa is alleged to have caused the death of the man from Barotu in an accident, involving multiple vehicles, on the hill at Teidamu outside Lautoka last weekend.
Appearing before Magistrate Hemantha, the PNG national was charged with one count of dangerous driving occasioning death, one count of dangerous driving and one count of failure to comply with provisions of licence issued in other countries.
In the bail ruling, Magistrate Hemantha said he was not satisfied that the accused would appear in court to answer the charges. He said he was also not satisfied with the sureties provided by the accused, a construction worker and a security guard.
Magistrate Hemantha said the prosecution had also not provided any evidence that the accused would not adhere to strict bail conditions.
In response to the ruling, defence counsel Nemani Vakacakau questioned Magistrate Hemantha’s reasons for denying bail for the accused who he argued was a student at USP and needed to continue with his classes.
Mr Vakacakau told the court he was shocked by the reasons provided and that they would be making an appeal against the judgment as soon as possible.
During the bail hearing, lead prosecutor Inspector Arvind Kumar said police had dealt with close to 20 dangerous driving occasioning death cases where drivers had been the main culprits.
He said the court should send out a strong message to other motorists that it would not tolerate bad behaviour on national roads.
He said the road death toll so far this year was 19 compared with four for the same period last year. The case has been adjourned to April 26 for mention.
