Khemraj Dhani, the man who killed his ex-wife and fatally wounded her first husband before turning the gun on himself in a Florida community on December 20 had been distressed at having to live on the streets and had vowed to end her life and then take his.
His mother, Betty Dhani, told this newspaper on Monday from her Adelphi, East Canje home that since her son, Khemraj was growing up he was very kind to her. The woman who separated from her husband when her children were small worked as a weeder at the sugar estate and recalled in tears that Khemraj used to help her in the field so she would finish her work. Even after she got home, she said her son would help her to do the cleaning.
She said during last month he called her all distressed and told her, “Ma me nah have a home anymore; me living on the streets.” He also told her that “this is the last you would hear from me because me gon kill Kalowtie and kill meself.”
She said that she blurted out, “No don’t do that! Pray to God” and he responded, “No ma, God nah dey fuh me anymore.”
The distraught woman said that although she knew he was distressed she did not expect him to make good on the threat.
When she received the call around midnight on December 20 with the news that he had committed suicide, she was shocked and started to scream. She screamed, she said, because her son needed help and she was not there to help him.
She said she two years ago she went to his home in Florida for a vacation and for the first few days Kalowtie was nice to her but things changed and she was forced to cut short her holiday there.
The woman recalled that when her son returned from work in the afternoons he would have to “cook, rub, scrub and everything…”
His sister, Janet said her brother told her on the phone a few months ago he was having problems and she begged him to return home. He promised to return in August but he did not make the trip.
On December 20, 51-year-old Khemraj Dhani forced his way into his ex-wife’s Polk County home and shot her and her first ex-husband before turning the gun on himself, according to The Ledger.com.
At the end of the drama, Khemraj and Kalowtie Dhani lay dead while Bridjnath (only name) was mortally wounded after sustaining five gunshot wounds. He succumbed on December 26 at the Lakeland Regional Medical Center. The three were originally from the Canje, Berbice area. According to The Ledger.com, at about 6 pm on December 20, Khemraj broke a window at the home and began firing a gun. His 17-year-old daughter ran to the bathroom, locked it and then escaped through the window. Kalowtie, 49, and Bridjnath, 50, were unable to flee.
Khemraj appeared to be enraged that Kalowtie had resumed a relationship with Bridjnath even though the latter had a wife of 18 years.
In a tape recording that was found on his body after the shooting and released by the Sheriff’s office, Khemraj vented his spleen.
He blamed Kalowtie for taking advantage of him and the courts and his lawyers for not giving him justice, his financial problems and his inability to return to Guyana to see his family.
“When you see me kill my wife and … ex-husband, don’t blame me, blame the court system where you get in Bartow and the three judges what involved in the case … they put me in the road so she can live with another man in my house that I work and sweat for,” he said on the tape.
“She took everything, all my money and everything … she took every cent I worked for,” he said.
“Everybody push me around, I hire two lawyer (and they did not represent me),” he said. “I am an idiot I don’t have no education so they can do me this. I am an idiot …
“Do you think it’s fun to live on the road? And you work so hard for what you get… Everybody want my money, money, money. I work like a slave… “
“I can’t live like this in my car… I don’t have a proper rest when the night come, so this is it. I’ve had enough now,” he said, according to the transcript.
Dhani said he was also angry that his daughter was being told to call another man her father.
Bridjnath’s second wife, Babso Bridnath, was left stunned by the developments. Bridjnath had moved to the US in 2005 and Babso joined him last year. It would appear that when he got to the US he resumed a relationship with Kalowtie.
In Guyana Bridjnath had been a field superintendent with the Guyana Sugar Corporation. According to the Ledger.Com, in the US both he and Babso worked as overnight security guards at different companies in Winter Haven and he also worked at an additional security job.
With only one car, Babso said she relied on Bridjnath for transportation. On the fateful day, the two left for work as usual at about 4 pm and two hours later he was found badly injured at Kalowtie’s home. Babso told The Ledger.Com that she didn’t know why he was visiting with his ex-wife. She said she had met Kalowtie before but did not see her often. Babso added that she and her husband had had a very good life.
“He don’t take anything for himself,” she said of her husband. “He come over here, bought a house, bought things for the house, paid the bills and the mortgage. He was a kind person, to do everything for me”, Babso told The Ledger.Com.