By Gaulbert Sutherland
A 45-year-old security guard was on Tuesday night battered to death allegedly by his 70-year-old reputed wife during a drunken row at their Zeeburg, West Coast Demerara home. The woman has since been detained by police.
Dead is Seubaschand also called Subas Roopchand and known as ‘Bruk up’, of 42 Second Street, Zeeburg. He was severely beaten during a row at the home and died at the Georgetown Public Hospital at about 11:30 pm on Tuesday. His reputed wife, with whom he had been living for about a year is in police custody assisting with investigations.
According to reports the fateful incident was preceded by a drinking spree at the couple’s residence. Neighbours said that when the row began at about 7:30 pm, they took little notice as it was a normal thing for the couple to fight. But shortly after, the sounds of beating were heard and Seubaschand was heard to be calling for help. “Ow, me gad, me gon dead”, one neighbour, who declined to be named, recalled the man as crying out. She said that Seubaschan called the name of another man and asked him to go call his sister.
Another neighbour said “The man ah beg she nah foh beat he no mo. He seh ‘ow mama doan beat me’ but she continue to lash the man with a iron bar”, the neighbour declared.
Another neighbour had by that time run to call the man’s sister, Rajkumarie Roopchand.
Yesterday Roopchand related that she was at home when the neighbour came running with the news. “De neighbour run come and tell we the lady beat the boy with a steel rod and how he dead”, she said. Roopchand stated that she rushed over to the home, located not far from where she lived and observed that her brother was lying in the doorway with half of his body on the landing and half inside. “When me see am me start holler hard”, the woman recounted noting that her brother’s face was bloody. She said that at that point he was still alive but could not say anything while his reputed wife stood cursing and brandishing a cutlass.
Roopchand recounted that when she attempted to venture upstairs to look at her brother, the woman brandishing her weapon, threatened to harm them and so they retreated from the yard. She said the woman asked someone to lock the gate and then went upstairs and placed Seubaschand’s body on the landing of the steps and locked the door. The woman then reportedly began to clean the walls of the home that were splattered with blood.
By that time, one of Roopchand’s daughters had been sent for the police and returned with one rank. However, the rank was unable to do anything and they called the “black clothes police”. In the meantime, Seubaschand was removed from the steps and placed in a vehicle and transported to the Leonora Cottage Hospital.
When the additional ranks arrived, they were reportedly thwarted from entering the home by the woman who brandished several objects at them forcing them to retreat.
They eventually borrowed a torch from one of the neighbours and kicked down the door but had to struggle to restrain the woman who kept up a fight. She was eventually taken to the Leonora Police Station.
Seubaschand had meanwhile been referred to the Georgetown Public Hospital. Roopchand said that about 11:30 that night her daughter called to say that he had died.
At her home yesterday, other relatives had arrived and Roopchand recounted that she had seen Seubaschand only a few minutes before the row began. She recalled that at about 7 pm she passed by the home and observed that they were drinking and had told them to stop and to go to bed. The grieving woman recalled that her brother and the woman had been living together for about a year and noted that the couple drank a lot and “every time they ah drink rum they ah fight”. She declared that the woman always physically abused her brother, who was unable to defend himself because he had a handicap as a result of polio.
Villagers were shocked by the incident and several recalled that the detained woman had always behaved in a rowdy manner and was fond of consuming alcohol.Police returned to the home yesterday and recovered several implements believed to have been used in the incident. Seubaschand is survived by four brothers and three sisters. A post-mortem examination is expected to be done tomorrow.
