Harjit Chaggar 'left to die' in Chatham shop basement
Harjit Chaggar was last seen in Chatham on 2 September last year A grandmother bled to death after being thrown down a hatch into the basement of a Chatham shop, a court has heard.
The decomposed body of Harjit Chaggar, 69, was found at the Sani Globe store in Luton Road last September, 12 days after she disappeared.
Bobbie Cheema QC, prosecuting, told Canterbury Crown Court Mrs Chaggar was still alive when thrown down the hatch.
Abdul Hannan, 44, and Murshed Miah, 38, from Maidstone, and Mohammed Liakat Islam, 28, of Gillingham, deny murder.
They also deny preventing Mrs Chaggar's lawful burial, along with a fourth defendant, Rasad Miah, of Chatham.
Ms Cheema said Mrs Chaggar, a widow, who lived alone in Chatham, Kent, was last seen on 2 September, visiting a day centre and collecting a prescription from a surgery in Magpie Hall Road.
'Still alive'The next time she was seen was when a smell underneath the floorboards at the grocery store was investigated.
Her handbag and jewellery were missing, she said.
Ms Cheema said there were no steps from the hatch in the floorboards to the basement below and it would have taken two people to lift it.
A post-mortem examination suggested her injuries were consistent with being thrown into the basement while still alive.
"Her killers showed no mercy, and she died alone," she told the jury.
Sani Globe was described as a grocery shop and butcher's, which supplied local restaurants and was frequented by a lot of the Bangladeshi community.
The jury was shown photos of the store room where Mrs Chaggar's body was discovered and CCTV footage of her in Chatham on the day she was last seen alive.
The trial continues.
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