Sascha Wil­son

Barack­pore tas­sa drum­mer Sieu­dass Ram­par­i­dath was found dead in a la­goon at the back of his home at Cun­jal Road South on Wednes­day.

His fam­i­ly does not sus­pect foul play, but po­lice in­ves­ti­ga­tions are still on­go­ing and an au­top­sy will be con­duct­ed to de­ter­mine his cause of death.

Ram­par­i­dath, 45, lived with his cousin Paul Ram­nath, who last saw him on Wednes­day morn­ing be­fore he (Ram­nath) left for work.

Ac­cord­ing to a po­lice re­port, Ram­par­i­dath was lat­er seen by chil­dren from the vil­lage near the la­goon, which is about 200 feet to the back of his house and he told them he was go­ing fish­ing. How­ev­er, his body was found around 6.30 pm.

At his Bar­rack­pore home yes­ter­day, rel­a­tives were prepar­ing for his wake.

Ram­nath told Guardian Me­dia that his cousin drank a lot of al­co­hol and suf­fered from seizures.

Re­call­ing that when he re­turned home around 5 pm his cousin was not home, he said, “I check all the neigh­bours and thing be­cause I know he does move about. When I gone he not nowhere around. I de­cide to look but them lil chil­dren say they see him in the la­goon catch­ing fish. He can’t get no fish there. I de­cide to take a (torch)light and go and look, the place was dark.”

He said when he found him he was ly­ing face-up in about an inch of wa­ter.

He be­lieves that Ram­par­i­dath was walk­ing along a track which led to their rel­a­tives’ homes but lost his bal­ance and fell in­to the la­goon.

“He can’t go there to catch fish, the grass so high. He just drunk and he miss that track and fall in the la­goon and catch the fits,” he said.

Ram­padi­rath, he added, was a well-known “tas­saman” in the com­mu­ni­ty.

“He was a very good per­son. He was not a vi­o­lent per­son. Every­body around here know him very well and he good with every­body,” he said.

Ram­padi­rath was not mar­ried and had no chil­dren. Po­lice said the body bore no vis­i­ble marks of vi­o­lence.

The body was re­moved to the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal mor­tu­ary but the au­top­sy is ex­pect­ed to be done at the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre in Port-of-Spain.

PC Silochan, of the Bar­rack­pore Po­lice Sta­tion, is in­ves­ti­gat­ing.