RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Even as the names of al­leged sus­pects were bandied about on so­cial me­dia, po­lice con­firmed yes­ter­day that they are yet to ar­rest the killers of Sav­it­ri Sook­lal and her 21-year-old daugh­ter Ar­i­an­na Sandeepa Bal­go­b­in.

Se­nior of­fi­cers told Guardian Me­dia that they were pur­su­ing sev­er­al leads and were try­ing to find ev­i­dence to link the sus­pect to the crimes.

Neigh­bours and oth­er rel­a­tives have made ac­cu­sa­tions say­ing the fam­i­ly was mur­dered for their prop­er­ty. Fin­gers have been point­ed at three peo­ple in­clud­ing some­one who was fired for steal­ing.

Sook­lal’s hus­band Ramdeo had worked sin­gle-hand­ed­ly to build his con­tract­ing com­pa­ny and when COVID-19 hit and jobs dried up, Ramdeo con­tin­ued to pro­vide a life of com­fort for his wife and two chil­dren. How­ev­er, a month af­ter his death, his son had to go in­to hid­ing af­ter re­ceiv­ing death threats. Up to the time when they were killed, Sook­lal and Bal­go­b­in had been liv­ing in a house de­void of elec­tric­i­ty.

Be­fore their death, the women had been at­tacked by a rel­a­tive at home. Their el­der­ly rel­a­tive was al­so bad­ly beat­en, a source added. 

Po­lice said they have tak­en state­ments from over a dozen peo­ple in­clud­ing the peo­ple whose names are be­ing called on so­cial me­dia.

One of the peo­ple who was named told CNC3 News in an ear­li­er in­ter­view that he was fear­ful for his life. 

Sav­it­ri Sook­lal, 60 and Ar­i­an­na Sandeepa Bal­go­b­in of Soledad Road, Clax­ton Bay were at home when they were both shot in their heads. Po­lice said Bal­go­b­in was found on a couch in the liv­ing room while her moth­er was found near the wash­room.

Be­fore the shoot­ing, a rel­a­tive said he heard some­one de­mand­ing mon­ey.  

Po­lice are call­ing on fam­i­ly mem­bers and neigh­bours to pro­vide in­for­ma­tion on the dou­ble mur­der. No one has yet been ar­rest­ed. Any­one with in­for­ma­tion can call Crimestop­pers at 800-TIPS.