Relative says threatened by assailant
The six-month-old baby injured when her mother was attacked by an ex-lover remained in stable condition at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) up to late yesterday afternoon.
Police are seeking the alleged attacker, Fazul Ousman.
Kalwantie Kumar, 21, of Hand-en-veldt, Mahaica was returning home from the clinic with her baby girl, Selena Rambarat, on Monday morning when she was allegedly attacked by Ousman a man with whom she had formerly shared a relationship. Kumar’s right arm was fractured as a result and she sustained injuries to the head.
Reports were that Hemwantie Jadunauth, the woman’s 20-year-old sister and their 56-year-old mother, Lapatie Persaud, rushed to her assistance and were also beaten by the man. Jadunauth was discharged from the hospital yesterday.
Persaud who sustained head injuries was strapped to her Ward C2 bed when this newspaper visited yesterday afternoon. The woman, relatives explained, was in a state of delirium. Kumar, still in pain, was resting but said that she was worried about her baby.
GPH in a press release issued yesterday afternoon said Persaud “is currently semi-conscious and her condition is listed as guarded; Kalwantie Kumar is fully conscious, oriented and responding to all commands and her condition is listed as stable and they are both patients of the Female Surgical Ward.”
The child was admitted to the Children’s Ward at GPH on Monday afternoon. Rambarat, who was in her mother’s arms at the time, sustained an injury from a blow dealt by Ousman as he was beating Kumar. GPH in their release stated that the child was in “a stable condition”.
Ronald Bahadur, Kumar’s nephew-in-law, and several other relatives were outside the Mahaica Police Station shortly after 1.30pm yesterday. Bahadur told this newspaper that they had shown up at the station since that morning to give their reports regarding the incident to the detective in charge. However, the man said that the officer kept asking them to wait and gave no “priority” to the case.
“We been here since this morning,” Bahadur stated. “This detective spoke to us then say he had to go out and asked us to wait…we need the police to start acting.”
Ousman, Bahadur said, called his cellular phone on Monday night and warned that he would deal with him for saving the women. Bahadur told Stabroek News that he and his relatives fear for their lives because there is no telling when the man can attack.
Meanwhile, other relatives said Ousman rode by their houses on his bicycle early yesterday morning. This, they stressed, was not the first time the man has attacked one of them and despite repeated reports to the police no action has ever been taken against the man.
Kalwantie told this newspaper yesterday that she became involved in a relationship with the suspect about five years ago. The relationship, she said, lasted for just over one year and she was forced to leave because of repeated verbal and physical abuse.
The woman explained that she and Ousman had a son together and the child was living with him. Kalwantie said that she is currently involved in a relationship with her daughter’s father and has moved on with her life. Ousman, she said, had threatened her repeatedly ever since she became involved with her present reputed husband. Those threats, according to her, only increased while she was pregnant with her daughter.
The relationship
Ousman’s mother, who only identified herself as Data, reported yesterday that she has not seen or heard from her son since the attack. The woman expressed concern about the injured women and child and said that Kumar did not end her relationship with Ousman two years ago.
According to Data, Kumar moved in with her son just over 5 years ago. At the time, Kumar would have been 16 and Ousman 29. Kumar’s family, Data said, did not approve of the union because the man had been in a relationship previously and was already the father of four.
Kumar, the older woman recalled, became pregnant months after she began living with Ousman and bore him a son. The child, Data said, is in her care but has been deprived of his mother’s presence for most of his life.
When the boy was just one and a half years old, Data said, Kumar walked out on her son to go and live with the father of her injured baby. During the past three years, the woman explained, Kumar has moved back and forth.
At the beginning of November last year, Data reported, Kumar showed up at their house after a lengthy disappearance with three-week-old Rambarat. Ousman, according to his mother, asked no questions but took the woman in.
“She come here with the baby when it was just three weeks or so and he ain’t ask her anything.” Data said. “He de just glad that she come back.”
Almost two weeks ago Kumar again moved and went to her parents who live a few streets away from them, Data said. Her son, she said, would “curse” Kumar but she has never seen him beat the woman.
However, the woman said that Kumar had called Ousman to meet her on Monday morning and a few minutes after he left she got news of the beating.
Neighbours, who live in the vicinity of the scene, told this newspaper that they saw Ousman speaking to Kumar on Monday morning. According to them, the man was asking her to “go home” with him. Shortly after Kumar’s mother approached the couple and started to tug her daughter’s arm.
“I see she mother pulling one of she hand and he pulling she to go with he,” a man who requested anonymity said. “The three of them had a bit of an argument and the next thing I see is this man grab a piece of wood and start pelting lash.”
However, Kumar’s nephew-in-law Bahadur had told this newspaper that it was shortly before 9 am Monday that the woman got out of a taxi with her baby.
“The road is rough,” Bahadur had explained. “So she stop a short distance away to walk the lil piece to her house.”
Ousman, Bahadur had reported, approached Kumar, grabbed her by the arm and demanded she go with him. When the woman refused, Ousman, according to Bahadur, picked up a piece of wood that was at the corner of the road and began hitting Kalwantie, who tried as best as she could to shield her baby in her arms.
Persaud and Jadunauth, who live nearby, heard the woman’s screams and rushed to her assistance but the man turned on them, beating them about their heads and bodies with the same piece of wood.
As other relatives became aware of the attack and approached the scene to intervene, Bahadur reported, the suspect fled, tossing the piece of wood in a nearby trench.
