The body of a nine-year-old girl was yesterday morning pulled from a pile of logs on a beach at Parika, East Bank Essequibo after she never returned home the day before.
Police are treating the death as a drowning while the girl’s relatives are claiming that the girl was a victim of foul play.
The body of Basmattie Seecharran called ‘Indy’ was discovered lying face-down in a pile of logs on the Parika beach around 8 am yesterday. One side of her face was swollen while blood oozed out of her nose and ear.
Her mother, Ramwattie Safeek told Stabroek News that the last time she had seen her daughter was around 2 pm on Monday. The grief-stricken woman said that when her daughter didn’t return home that night she searched for her for a while and then gave up as Seecharran would frequently go to spend the night at her grandmother’s home in Zeelugt without telling her. The devastated woman said that she was informed of her daughter’s death about 8:30 yesterday morning and went she went to the scene she saw her daughter’s body face-down between two logs. She said that she had on only a pants and her body was sprawled out with blood oozing out of her nose and ear, “Is somebody do she something and put she deh”, the woman cried. She also stated that her children were not disciplined which she blamed on a relative. She said that as a result she had taken the matter to court.
Meanwhile, a police source told Stabroek News that the death was being treated as a drowning. The source said that after the mother had alleged that the child was raped a doctor had examined the girl and found no evidence of that. The source also said that from all indications the girl went for a swim and had somehow drowned. The source noted that the wounds could have been sustained as a result of the girl hitting the logs when the tide receded. The source also said that the mother was known around the community for leaving her children to wander about the place and indicated that the girl was last seen walking the streets at around 1 am yesterday. The source noted that unless the post mortem examination reveals otherwise, the police will treat the death as a drowning.
Meanwhile, the girl’s other relatives are also saying that the girl was murdered. Seecharan’s grandmother, Premwattie Ramkissoon told Stabroek News that she had a rocky relationship with her daughter, the mother of the dead child. She said it arose because Safeek reportedly neglected her five children and so she took them in.
She said that she had raised the children for a number of years. Seecharran’s great-grandmother who lives in Parika also declared that their relationship with Safeek was rocky and every day after attending classes at the Greenwich Primary School where she was a second-former, Seecharran would go to her home until she told her to go home.
They said that last year, Safeek caused Seecharran and her 10-year-old son to be held at the Den Amstel Police Station for three days after alleging that they stole a sum of money from her.
Meanwhile, yesterday at Parika, the grief-stricken mother was busy getting ready for a wake for Seecharran, the only one of her children who lived with her. She was continuously crying as she spoke of her daughter. Neighbours said that she had worked hard to maintain her daughter. Her relatives were not invited to the wake and were also busy preparing their own.