A man who was being held in the Diamond Police Station lock-ups is currently a patient of the Georgetown Hospital after he attempted to commit suicide in his prison cell yesterday afternoon by tying his shirt to an iron bar.
The man of Little Diamond Housing Scheme is presently in the open ward of the city medical institution under police guard.
This incident comes several months after a teenager was found hanging by his jersey in the Enmore Police Outpost lock-ups. Police have said that it was a case of suicide but the man’s relatives remain adamant that foul play was involved.
Up to press time last evening police had not issued a statement on the incident.
Stabroek News understands that the Diamond man was arrested on Sunday afternoon for allegedly hitting his mother. While he was among several prisoners being held at the station, he was alone in a cell. Around 3 o’clock yesterday an officer went to check on him and found him with his shirt around his neck and the other end attached to an iron bar.
This newspaper understands that the shirt was shredded to pieces which were knotted together to form a rope.
Sources told this newspaper that ranks would check on the prisoners periodically, at least every hour.
The man was immediately rushed to the hospital and after receiving treatment was admitted.
The normal procedure is that when someone is held their belts and shoe laces are among the items seized by the police so as to ensure they don’t attempt suicide.
On January 17, last, Ramesh Sawh of Logwood, Enmore East Coast Demerara was found hanging by his jersey in the lock-ups at Enmore Police Outpost. He had been arrested pending investigations into a report of the larceny of a motor vehicle battery.
The discovery was made by a rank at the station who had gone to do a routine check. Sawh was pronounced dead on arrival at the Georgetown Hospital.
The man’s relatives had made claims that he was beaten by ranks and the police launched an investigation at the end of which they refuted the claims saying that there was no evidence of this.
The police had said that the post-mortem examination showed that he died from “asphyxiation due to compression in the neck due to hanging”.
