All Batia Ramsumair wanted for Mother's Day was to make peace with her estranged son. Little did she know it would have been her last wish. Yesterday, Ramsumair, 70, was bludgeoned to death by her son, Basdeo "Ratty" Ragoobar, 47, at his Sukhu Trace, Barrackpore, home after an argument over land.
Ragoobar, overcome with guilt after his actions, took his own life minutes after murdering his mother. Barrackpore police made the gruesome discovery yesterday after they were called out to investigate a domestic dispute around 9 am. Neighbours told police they heard noises coming from Ragoobar's home and then saw Ramsumair lying on the ground in a pool of blood.
Only then did they contact the police. Officers found Ramsumair's body in the front yard of Ragoobar's home, which mother and son once shared. They also found the semi-nude corpse of Ragoobar lying face down in some bushes about 500 feet from his mother's body. He reportedly consumed a poisionous liquid, as a bottle containing a brownish substance was found nearby.
Police are now searching for Ragoobar's female relative whom they believe could assist in piecing together the circumstances surrounding the murder/suicide. Two Hindu murtis lay overturned near Ramsumair's body. Police were up to late yesterday searching for the weapon used to bludgeon the grandmother.
Yesterday, grieving relatives said they had planned a special surprise to celebrate Mother's Day with Ramsumair at her Jones Village, Khanhai Road, home. However, the woman was insistent on visiting Ragoobar and spending time with him. They had not spoken in over a year but she wanted to see him and make peace.
Yesterday, as the undertakers placed Ragoobar's body next to his mother's in a van, his sister Annie, 36, cried out: "Why she had to come and spend Mother's Day with he? She wanted to spend Mother's day with him. Now she get to spend Mother's Day with him," as she was comforted by her husband Ravi Ramdass.
Relatives said for 18 years Ramsumair and Ragoobar had a violent relationship which escalated last year when she left her home to live with one of her son in Jones Village. A protection order was later taken out against Ragoobar. He was recently released from prison after serving time for breaching the order.
Ramsumair's eldest son, Dass Ragoobar, 49, said he warned his mother about going to his brother's house. "She said it is Mother's Day and she have to talk to him. She said he have to think about his mother. She insisted. She did not want to listen. If she did only listen. I saw this on TV so many times and now look how it happen to we," he sobbed.
Dass held his head in disbelief as he said: "He kill she, he kill she...she son. All she wanted was to talk to him. It's Mother's Day out of all the days. Mother's Day he kill she. He was always violent. He always threatening to kill somebody. I was not here. If I was home I would not have let her go there."
He said his mother single-handedly raised her five children after his father died. "She worked hard. She take dirt in her hands and build that house (family home.) She worked hard to bring we up." One of Ramsumair's grandchildren said she loved her son too much.
"It is so tragic. It is a mother loving a son and she come to see him today on Mother's Day and he kill her. She just love him too much. You cannot accept that. He was her son. He mean everything to her as all her children do," he said. Community Devlopment Minister Nizam Baksh, who lives a short distance from Ragoobar's home, visited the scene and extended his condolences. He lamented the manner in which Ramsumair died.
"It is discouraging to see what is happened here today. It is Mother's Day, a day when we should all be showing love to our mothers, a very special day and to see an incident like this happening today in a deep rural community, it means that today people are losing their patience," he said. Asst Supt Zamsheed Mohammed, homicide investigators Sgt Peter Ramdeen, Cpl Ifill, Cpl Hosein, together with Crime Scene Investigators visited the scene and recorded statements.
