The badly decomposed body of a 33-year-old labourer who was missing since January 21 last was fished out of a canal at the Cotton Tree foreshore at around 9:30 am yesterday minus his head and left hand.
Seeram `Totes’ Totaram of Bath Settlement, West Berbice was found in a fishing seine by a youth. Four persons have since been taken into custody at the Fort Wellington Police Station (FWPS) and are assisting with investigations.
Reports are that a youth had gone to the area to pick bora from his farm and had set the seine in the meantime. This newspaper learnt that as the youth was pulling in the seine the young man at first saw what looked like the foot of a cow. He continued pulling in his seine and realized that it was a body and immediately summoned the help of a man who assisted in dragging the body onto the dam. Totaram’s head and left hand were missing but relatives identified the body from the pair of black pants, a black belt and black and white boxer shorts that it was clad in.
Shortly after his disappearance the man’s reputed wife, 16-year-old Latchmie ‘Vanessa’ Khemraj had told Stabroek News that two persons had threatened him on two separate occasions.
She said he had left home at around 7 pm on December 21 to arrange with a friend to work in a rice field the following morning but ended up drinking. The woman said he would sometimes return home at around 1 am when he went out to drink and when that time passed she became worried. She said later that morning she contacted his relatives but they had not seen him either.
She had said that he was reportedly last seen drinking at a rum shop in the village on the night of his disappearance. There are reports too that he had been arguing with persons and relatives were worried that he may have been murdered and buried in a shallow grave.
She made a report to the FWPS and the police checked all the hospitals but there was still no trace of Totaram. She said too that relatives had checked in vain “everywhere – from the sea-dam to the backdam” in West Berbice and even some parts on the East Coast.
The woman later learnt from the friend he was drinking with that her husband left the shop at around 8:30 pm and ended up drinking elsewhere.
Yesterday the man’s brother-in-law, Inshan Ally-Khan told this newspaper that he learnt that after the man left the shop he went to a resident to borrow money. He then continued drinking at someone’s house and left to go home at around 10 pm.
Reports are that while on his way home a few men who were drinking close to the koker started to beat him up. A woman related that she heard someone was “hollering” but she did not look out. The following morning, she said she heard that ‘Totes’ was missing.
Ally-Khan said he received a call around midday yesterday that the body was found and he and a few other persons visited the scene to identify it.