The cross examination of the main FICAC witness in the trial of former Nasinu Mayor, Rajeshwar Kumar and former clerk, Jaswant Kumar, carried on late into the afternoon yesterday as defense lawyer Rajendra Chaudhry started to question the authority the witness had, to oversee cheques, as she was just on attachment with the Nasinu Town Council at the time of the offence.

The two accused, Rajeshwar Kumar and Jaswant Kumar are facing charges of abuse of office and embezzlement.

It is alleged that while the two were employed at the Council, they had colluded to raise a cheque amounting to $2,344 for payment to Post Fiji Limited on the 26th of May 2006.

However the cheque was allegedly cashed at the Westpac Bank without the knowledge of Post Fiji Limited.

Before proceeding with his questions, Chaudhry asked the witness Vinita Prasad, who was the Council's Accounts Officer, to think carefully of what she was saying while in the witness box, as the High Court was aware of afew inconsistencies in her statements, as she had earlier in the day being declared hostile by FICAC lawyers.

During cross examination by Chaudhry, the Court heard that Prasad was attached to the Accounts section and answered to Jaswant Kumar as they were the only two in office at that time.

Prasad also revealed that she only had a diploma in IT and had no experience or knowledge of accounting and was doing on the job training.

Prasad also said that she was unaware of the cheque made on the 26th of May 2006 for a total of $2,334, as she was not the one that wrote it.

Chaudhry asked Prasad to reveal when she became aware that a cheque had been issued, to which Prasad said that Post Fiji kept calling for their payment however the cashbook and the cheque butts showed that a cheque had been issued.

However, Prasad stresses that she had alerted her superior Jaswant Kumar and he told her to make further payments to Post Fiji, thus the issuing of another three consecutive cheques.

Chaudhry was cautioned by High Court Judge Justice Daniel Goundar not to twist the question and witness' answers around, as the witness broke down crying twice in Court, in which case the trial had to break for a recess for the witness to collect herself.

Meanwhile, FICAC will carry out their cross examination this morning as lawyer, Laisa Lagilevu told Justice Goundar that the witness needed time to rest as the matter had lasted all day.

The trial is set to continue this morning at 10.