A long-running murder case is about to wrap up in Fiji with a New Zealand resident charged with killing five people in the remote countryside and leaving an eleven-month-old baby to die.
Prosecutors allege Christchurch bus driver Mohammed Raheesh Isoof murdered three adults and two children with pesticides at Nausori Highlands in Nadi.
To three generations of the Kumar family, Isoof was like a rich uncle. He was going to help them get a fresh start in New Zealand, but the prosecution said that's far from the truth.
"He had brainwashed the family to thinking that he was their saviour and that he was going to take them off to New Zealand and that he was going to offer them one of his six properties," FBC TV journalist Filipe Naikaso told Newshub.
The prosecution alleges Isoof murdered 63-year-old carpenter Nirmal Kumar, his wife Usha Devi, their daughter Nileshni Kajal and her two daughters, 11-year-old Sana and eight-year-old Samara, when he forced them to drink a concoction that included pesticide in a ritual in the Nausori Highlands two-and-a-half years ago.
"It was one of those stories that gripped the nation," Naikaso said. "Everyone was talking about this particular case, you know. How did this family end up there, what happened."
Naikaso has been covering the case since he interviewed the farmer who discovered the five bodies.
"I kept calling until a small baby looked up," Setareki Nagala said. "The baby was lying on top of one of the bodies."
Nagala heard the baby crying and found her covered in vomit and crawling with ants just a metre from a cliff.
"It was a miracle that she survived not only the night but also where she was found," Naikaso said.
The defence claims Isoof did not murder the family and abandon the baby and said he was more than a close friend.
"It was as if they were like the same family. Nirmal Kumar and Isoof, it was like they were brothers," Naikaso said.
The prosecution said the rich benefactor act was a pretence, like many others. Isoof's six houses didn't exist and he only rented in Christchurch.
Witnesses have told the court that Isoof was after the Kumars' nest egg which they tried to withdraw from the bank the day before they were found.
"CCTV footage shows, alleging that he had taken the family up to the Nausori Highlands the day before the bodies were found," Naikaso said. "Also some allegations of witchcraft from him that he had performed the rituals also."
Isoof denies the witnesses' claims that he was involved in witchcraft or that he was having an affair with Nileshni Kumar, the mother of the two girls.
The case is expected to conclude next week.
Watch the full story above.
