– bought knives on Saturday
The Vreed-en-Hoop man, who slashed his former reputed wife to death on Tuesday before turning the knife on himself and ingesting a poisonous substance, died early yesterday at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) and reports are that he carefully planned the event.
Relatives of 31-year-old Vishnudat Tajram said he died around 1 am yesterday.
Around midday on Tuesday, he killed 26-year-old Omawattie Kallicharran at his sister’s Canal Number Two, West Bank Demerara home. The couple had shared a rocky relationship that produced a four-year-old son and had been separated for about two years. Kallicharran’s relatives said Tajram had been in the habit of threatening the young woman and she had made several reports at both the La Grange and Dem Amstel police stations.
Meanwhile, further reports reaching this newspaper indicate that Tajram had been planning the murder/suicide for more than three days. He had purchased the three knives recovered at the scene on Saturday last at a store in Vreed-en-Hoop and had informed a taxi driver that he had “a work” for him.
This was the taxi driver who transported the couple to the Canal Number Two address around midday on Tuesday.
Tajram’s sister, Kileshwarie Tajram, had said that she was at the back of her house watering plants when the couple arrived. However, it has now been revealed that in fact she was present when the couple reached the house and had given the taxi driver a glass of water before he left.
Kileshwarie Tajram had said on Tuesday that by the time she left her kitchen garden and proceeded to the front to see who was at her home, Kallicharran had already been killed and her brother was vomiting.
She gave conflicting statements to the police and was subsequently taken into custody and held on Tuesday night. She was only released late yesterday afternoon after giving the police a further statement. Speaking to Stabroek News yesterday, Kallicharran’s brother said he had received information that it was a driver attached to a taxi service at Vreed-en-Hoop who had transported the couple. He said he visited the taxi driver, who was not hesitant to speak to him and even proceeded to La Grange Police Station yesterday morning to give a statement to the police.
According to the brother, the driver said Tajram had contacted him about three days before the incident and informed him that he had “a work” for him.
However, on Monday he informed the driver that he would no longer need him. But around 8 am on Tuesday, he called the driver and told him to pick him up at his home. This was consistent with what Tajram’s mother had said.
The taxi driver reported that Tajram told him he had to pick up a girl. However, between 8 am and 11 am — the time Kallicharran left her La Jalousie home to travel to Georgetown to uplift her passport — he had the driver take him to shops in two West Coast Demerara villages where he drank several alcoholic beverages. As they drove around, the driver reported, Tajram received several calls on his cellular phone. The driver reportedly said that every time he received a call, Tajram would tell him that the girl was not ready.
Their last stop, the driver told Kallicharran’s brother, was at a shop in La Jalousie where Tajram bought some rum. He was just about to start drinking it, when his phone rang again and he reportedly received information from someone that Kallicharran had left her home.
Tajram had the taxi driver drive to the corner of the main street in La Jalousie, where they saw Kallicharran walking out to the main road. Her brother said the driver told him, “how when she come out Navin [Tajram] went and hug she and bring she to de car and when dem went inside, he tell she how dem going to he sister in Canal Number Two. De taxi driver say how de girl ent resist, suh he ent know nuttin deh wrong.”
But he said he did not think his sister would have gone willingly with Tajram as she was afraid of him and wanted nothing to do with him.
The taxi driver told Kallicharran’s brother that if the woman had resisted he would have done something as they passed more than one police station on their way. He said the driver told him that it was only after they turned into Canal Number Two that Tajram slapped Kallicharran.
“He [the driver] say how he turn and ask he [Tajram], wha he slap de girl fuh and he say how she mouth too hot and tell he not to worry how de two a dem good,” the brother said.
When they arrived at the sister’s home, the taxi driver said, she came outside and he asked her for a glass of water which she gave him. He said she also gave Kallicharran some water. The taxi driver said he then left.
Meanwhile, Tajram’s relatives are angry that the police held his sister overnight.
“She nah know nutten. She ent kill nobody wha dem keep she fuh,” a brother said. When told that she had given the police a false statement, he said: “Yea but she din frighten. Is nah like she do nutten. She never had no police story and she frighten dat is all.”
A senior police officer told Stabroek News that the woman was held because of her conflicting stories. She later told the police that when her brother attacked Kallicharran with a knife, she told her to run but as the woman attempted to escape she fell down and her brother then stabbed and slashed her throat. He then stabbed himself and drank the poison he had with him.
Kallicharran’s relatives are of the opinion that if both the taxi driver and the man’s sister had acted differently, the young woman might have been alive today.
A post-mortem examination is expected to be performed on her tomorrow and she would be cremated on Sunday.