Khara Per­sad

The body of 19-year-old con­struc­tion work­er Naraad Tankoo was found in a pond near his home in Khanai Trace, Bar­rack­pore, on Mon­day. An au­top­sy re­vealed yes­ter­day he died by drown­ing.Ac­cord­ing to the po­lice re­port, Tankoo was ac­com­pa­nied by San­jay Ram­per­sad to a pond near Ram­per­sad's home. He re­port­ed­ly dived in­to the pond around 4 pm and did not resur­face.

Ram­per­sad told po­lice he en­list­ed the help of vil­lagers to find his body.His moth­er, Saru­jni, yes­ter­day said her son, the youngest of her eight chil­dren, left home on Sun­day around 7 pm to go to a neigh­bour's home to lime where he and a group of co-work­ers were drink­ing pun­cheon rum.Speak­ing to the T&T Guardian at her home, Saru­jni said when Naraad did not come home Sun­day night or Mon­day morn­ing, she went to the neigh­bour's house about mid­day on Mon­day and found Naraad drunk but he re­fused to go home with her.

"'Not yet,' he kept telling me. He said he will come home lat­er but he nev­er come home," she added.She said Naraad told her the night be­fore they had gone hunt­ing and planned to cook that day."All how I beg him to come home, he didn't come home."An­oth­er broth­er, Roop­nar­ine, went to the house three times on Mon­day but met the same re­sponse from his younger broth­er.

Saru­jni said Naraad was in a hap­py mood when she spoke with him as he laughed with her dur­ing their con­ver­sa­tion.Around 6 pm, how­ev­er, she re­ceived a call from Roop­nar­ine say­ing he had heard Naraad had drowned. She said by the time she got to the pond it was al­ready crowd­ed with on­look­ers."That's my life, I don't know how I would live with­out him," she said, as tears be­gan to run down her face.

Roop­nar­ine and Sa­hadeo Singh, her el­dest son, con­soled their moth­er at their Bar­rack­pore home yes­ter­day."He was a good man. We just shocked," Singh said.