RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

A nine-year-old boy is cur­rent­ly re­ceiv­ing coun­selling from the Chil­dren’s Au­thor­i­ty of T&T af­ter wit­ness­ing his el­der­ly fa­ther be­ing choked by a man at their home, short­ly be­fore his fa­ther died.

Dharam­raj Bas­deo, 62, even­tu­al­ly suc­cumbed at the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal around 8 am yes­ter­day.

His death is now be­ing in­ves­ti­gat­ed by po­lice as a sus­pect­ed homi­cide.

A length of PVC pipe be­lieved to have been used dur­ing the in­ci­dent has al­so been seized by the po­lice.

The sus­pect, who lives close by, is cur­rent­ly in po­lice cus­tody.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors said Bas­deo was sell­ing burg­ers on Thurs­day night when his com­mon-law wife, Sari­ka Ram­per­sad, got in­to an ar­gu­ment with a neigh­bour. She ac­cused the neigh­bour of us­ing her Wi-Fi con­nec­tion with­out her per­mis­sion.

Yes­ter­day morn­ing around 6.30 am, the quar­rel es­ca­lat­ed, but this time it was be­tween Bas­deo and the sus­pect. It is al­leged that dur­ing the ar­gu­ment, the sus­pect choked Bas­deo with a piece of PVC.

When Sari­ka ran in­side, she saw Bas­deo sit­ting on a chair breath­ing heav­i­ly with froth com­ing out of his mouth. She rushed him to the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal, where he lat­er died.

When Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed the fam­i­ly at their Re­trench Vil­lage home yes­ter­day, Michael Ram­per­sad, Sari­ka’s fa­ther, had just re­turned from the air­port af­ter spend­ing a month work­ing in Guyana. He said he was in shock af­ter learn­ing of his son-in-law’s death.

“I was at the air­port when I heard he died. I feel sad. He was hard­work­ing and a good per­son to me. A good per­son to every­body. He al­ways try­ing to help peo­ple,” Ram­per­sad said.

He said three weeks ago, he spoke to Bas­deo about a do­mes­tic prob­lem but it was lat­er re­solved.

“I alone now will have to see about my grand­son. I am tak­ing him in for coun­selling. He wit­nessed the whole thing. He was with his fa­ther when it hap­pened. I wasn’t here so I do not know what hap­pened,” Ram­per­sad said.

Asked whether they need­ed any as­sis­tance, Ram­per­sad said they will do the fu­ner­al ser­vice for Bas­deo.

“The fam­i­ly will take care of this. He was look­ing for­ward to Christ­mas,” Ram­per­sad said.

He ex­plained that Bas­deo had been work­ing in a burg­er shed since he re­tired from CEPEP. Ram­per­sad said cur­rent­ly, the child seemed un­aware that his fa­ther had died.

“Lat­er this evening, when he looks for his fa­ther, he may re­alise what hap­pened,” Ram­per­sad said.

Of­fi­cers of the South­ern Di­vi­sion Homi­cide, led by ASP Per­sad, and in­clud­ing In­sp Re­beiro, Sgt Ma­haraj, WP Sgt Bas­sarat, PC Mathu­ra and PC Jagge­sar, of the Homi­cide Bu­reau of In­ves­ti­ga­tion Re­gion Three, vis­it­ed the scene. An au­top­sy has been sched­uled for the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre in St James next week.