Prasad murder: Accused pair's spend-up

NZME.

2 Mar, 2015 04:00 PM3 mins to read

Shivneel Kumar (left) and Bryne Permal flank a security guard in the High Court at Auckland.

Defendant paid fines with torched man's money, court told.

Only days after allegedly burning his friend to death for his life savings, an Auckland man used the money to pay off his court fines.

Within a couple of weeks, Shivneel Kumar, 20, was back at Manukau District Court accused of killing supermarket worker Shalvin Prasad.

Kumar and Bryne Permal, 22, are charged in the High Court at Auckland with the murder of the 21-year-old.

The trial began yesterday with the Crown claiming the victim withdrew his life savings of $30,050 from a Manukau bank, at the request of Kumar, on January 30, 2013.

Later that night, Mr Prasad was allegedly taken to a rural South Auckland road where he was doused in petrol and set alight.

Crown prosecutor Aaron Perkins said a post-mortem examination had confirmed he was "almost certainly" alive when it happened.

Mr Prasad's smouldering body was found early the next day by a woman walking her dog on McRobbie Rd in Kingseat.

While police rapidly launched a homicide investigation, the two defendants went on a lavish spending spree, the court was told.

Kumar allegedly paid off $2437 he had accumulated in court fines as well as splashing out nearly $4000 on his car. The Crown said he also made a bank deposit of $14,000.

On February 2, both defendants hit the shops, racking up a bill of nearly $1500 between them on tattoos, jewellery and clothes.

Mr Perkins highlighted "potentially very powerful evidence" that would come from conversations between Permal and Kumar, after police bugged Kumar's lime-green Holden.

Mr Perkins said the jury would be played a recording in which the men discussed the importance of using their phones carefully and how they should act if questioned by police.

"The only way we'll be saved is if our stories match up," it is alleged they said.

When police interviewed Permal, two weeks after Mr Prasad was found dead, he denied knowing or having met the victim and said he had gone straight home from work on the night in question.

However, when police played him the recording from inside the car he changed his story.

He quickly pinned the murder on Kumar and said he only helped him purchase the petrol - which was allegedly used to burn the victim to death - because he thought Kumar's car had run out of fuel.

Permal told officers that the pair had stopped on a rural road and he stayed in the car while his associate committed the alleged murder.

In their respective statements, both accused told police they had gone to the Pelican Club - a brothel in Newton - later that night.

Permal said he was paid just over $4000 for his role.

Mr Prasad's father is expected to tell the court his son was "naive and immature" and spent most of his time at his work at a supermarket or at home with the family.

Mr Perkins told the jury the victim had previously loaned Mr Kumar more than $8000, which resulted in his family taking legal action to try to recover the money.

The trial before Justice Geoffrey Venning and a jury of six women and six men is expected to last four weeks.