(top), Lalita Ramoutar, after she
returned from the Vigilance Police Station yesterday and two
of Suresh Persaud’s four children (bottom)
Suresh
Persaud’s wife, Lalita, 45, told the Guyana
Chronicle yesterday that her husband left home about
11:00 h Tuesday to do business at Mahaica, East Coast Demerara
with his neighbour, Sundat Ramoutar, who was also a part-time
taxi driver.
Lalita
said that was the last time she saw Persaud but she received a
telephone call from him about 14:00 h the same day and he told
her to go ahead and prepare dinner.
She
said Persaud told her he would be home late that night but he
did not turn up.
“He
sold a car engine recently and he had a lot of money on his
person, but when he left he said he was going to Mahaica to do
business and would be back to cook dinner for us and I really
don’t believe my husband was killed in that manner,” she
cried yesterday afternoon.
Lalita
cannot believe her husband is dead and cannot understand why
he would have been in Strathspey, where the car was found on
the railway embankment road.
The
grieving woman said she went to the Vigilance Police Station,
East Coast Demerara, yesterday and the police told her to be
at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) today for
the post mortem on Persaud’s remains.
“I
hope my husband return home. I refuse to believe he was killed
and burnt beyond recognition in
that car,” she cried uncontrollably yesterday.
After
Persaud failed to return home on Tuesday night, Lalita began
to fear the worst because it was unlike her husband to stay
away from home, especially at nights, and she told her son to
lodge a report at the Kitty Police Station later that night.
Persaud’s
20-year-old pregnant daughter, Ameena Ramoutar, told the Guyana
Chronicle yesterday she strongly believes her father
was murdered during a robbery because he had money on him when
he left home Tuesday and would never have ventured into
Buxton.
“He
was never involved in any crimes or for that matter anything
illegal which would suggest he had dealings in Buxton; he
worked honestly at the wharf selling fish and I know my father
was murdered,” she cried yesterday.
Persaud
is survived by four children, his wife and scores of
relatives.
A
relative of Ramoutar said the cop, who had been in the Police
Force for about eight years, also used a sister’s gold-coloured
car, licence plate PJJ 6771, as a part-time taxi.
She
said Ramoutar borrowed his sister’s car over the weekend and
left home Tuesday afternoon to go out with a friend to Mahaica,
East Coast Demerara to meet someone to do business.
The
relative said that was the last time he was seen and after he
did not return home that evening, family members called his
cellular phone but got no answer.
Reports
said Ramoutar’s relatives received a telephone call about
20:00 h Tuesday that a car was set alight with its two
occupants in it at Strathspey by gunmen.
Ramoutar
lived with his wife and three-year-old daughter at Owen
Street, Kitty.
They
believe that Ramoutar and Persaud were on their way home when
they were attacked and shot on Company Road at Buxton by
gunmen who later drove the car to Strathspey where they
torched it.
Company
Road, the scene of several violent attacks on vehicles since
armed and dangerous criminals made the village a safe haven in
2002, was freshly ditched Tuesday night and the men in the car
were apparently cornered and shot when they were forced to
stop at one of the ditches, reports said.
The
police said that at about 23:00 h Tuesday at Strathspey, they
found a burnt motor car
with two corpses inside after reports of shooting in Buxton
earlier that night.
Police
yesterday said they were still investigating the bizarre
killing.
Friday,
October 21, 2005
