A scuffle between two fishermen over a bag of fish after they had been drinking together resulted in one being stabbed in the abdomen on Tuesday about midnight at the Anna Regina seashore in Essequibo.
Thirty-seven-year-old Rajindra Persaud of 53 La Bonne Intention was admitted to the Georgetown Public Hospital early Wednesday morning for medical attention after he reportedly sustained a stab wound in a scuffle with a fishing partner well known as ‘Tony’.
Persaud told Stabroek News from his bed in the Male Open Ward of the hospital that he left home earlier that night to purchase some food supplies but stopped at his boat on the seashore where he said, “I see de boys [Tony and his four other fishing mates] drinking, and I decided to take a few myself.”
He said that later he went outside to check on some fish they had been sun-drying, when Tony joined him but started bagging off the fish. Persaud said he enquired from him what he intended to do with it and got the reply, “Boy wa yuh think – I going and sell fish.”
Persaud explained that it was an unusual response since he and the other fishermen who were still inside the boat usually sold the fish as a group. He said he then attempted to snatch the bag with the fish from Tony’s grasp, but the man took out a knife and stabbed him in the abdomen before making good his escape. He said further that he was subsequently taken to the hospital by the other fishermen.
“I pressing charges cause the knife went three inches into me,” Persaud said. He related that he and Tony were good friends. “We never never get no problems, he must be deh drunk.”