The family of a man who was found dead with his head shaven and the cause of death later given as a ruptured liver are seeking answers on his demise.
“I get de message that night after 12. She [a neighbour] call and say “Go see Bo-bo dead…”recalled the mother of the 31-year-old man, who was found dead a short distance away from his De Willem, West Coast Demerara home with his head and one eyebrow shaven.
Dharampaul Ramsarup was discovered dead two Sundays ago a short distance away from his home.
Relatives said that when they saw his body his head and eyebrow were shaven, waste oil was smeared on his face and lipstick was dabbed onto his lips. They suspect that a prank went awry and resulted in the man’s death.
The man’s mother, Surujdai Ramsarup, said that just after midnight she received a phone call from a neighbour who told her that her son was lying dead by the culvert at the head of their street (Second Street, De Willem). She explained that she roused her husband and proceeded to the scene.
“I see he lying there,” the woman said. “They shave he head and half of one of he eyebrows. Them rub waste oil on he face and he had lipstick on his lip,” the distressed woman recalled. She also said that a short distance away from her son another drunken man was also lying on the road by the culvert.
Surujdai explained that some people in the street had just concluded a three-day yajna (Hindu religious function) and had decided to “sport” afterwards. She said that her son was sitting outside on the road with a group of men he knew and they were all drinking.
Ramsarup’s step-father said that he was at the yajna helping and that night he went home at approximately 7 pm to sleep. He explained that his son was not in the people’s yard “sporting” but he was sitting outside on the road with a group. He explained that when he went out to see if something had indeed happened to his stepson he saw him “coiled up” on the road and checked for a pulse but there was nothing.
Relatives said that Ramsarup was drunk that night and a number of individuals who were present at the gathering had him sit in a chair placed in the middle of the street and they proceeded to shave his head as a prank. Later, they said, when the police arrived at the scene, the hair and razor blade were still on the road.
The man’s body was discovered sometime around midnight by a fellow villager, Eon also called Gadget, who was walking home from a wedding house. Ramsarup’s aunt said that Eon told them that he was walking home when he saw the man lying there so he began shaking him to see if he was alright. When Eon didn’t get a response, the woman said, he alerted others that Ramsarup was dead. Ramsarup’s body was in front of the house where the gathering had taken place.
The deceased man’s mother said that about 10 pm on the fateful night someone had called the police to report the loud music at the party and the police had to order the people to take the music off. Later when they again summoned the police, one officer recalled seeing Ramsarup sitting in the chair on the street.
“When the police arrived the people didn’t even put on their lights. In fact when the alarm was raised that my nephew was dead they didn’t even look out,” Ramsarup’s aunt related. “The police had to jump their fence before they came downstairs to speak to them,” the woman recalled.
According to the relatives a number of men were taken into custody in relation to the death but released on bail. The man’s relatives said that one of the men is returning to Canada today and they fear that nothing will come of the matter. A post-mortem examination conducted last Monday, they said, revealed that the man died of a ruptured liver which may have been the result of Ramsarup sustaining a hard hit to his body.
Ramsarup leaves to mourn his three sisters, parents and other relatives. His funeral took place last Wednesday.
“He used to drink he lil rum but he was a good man. He was obedient and treated everyone with respect,” one woman present at the Ramsarups’ home said yesterday. (Sara Bharrat)
