-family denies claim he was mentally ill
A post-mortem examination conducted on Davendra ‘Nave’ Beharry, the Camp Street prisoner who was found dead in his cell, revealed that he was stabbed and beaten to death.
Balram Tulsiram, Beharry’s uncle, yesterday told Stabroek News that his nephew died as a result of two stab wounds he sustained as well as several blows about the body which include two to the head. “Now that we know is beat and stab he get beat and stab to death we don’t know wah we going to do cause up to now we can’t hear nothing proper from the prison people or de police,” Tulsiram told Stabroek News.
Beharry, 27, called Nave, of Hand-en-Veldt, Mahaica was stabbed to death that Friday by inmates of the Georgetown Prison, one day after he was placed on remand for a larceny charge when he appeared at the Mahaica Magistrates’ Court. He was pronounced dead on arrival at the Georgetown Public Hospital.
The man is one of four prisoners to be wounded and the second to die as a result while in custody of the Georgetown Prisons. Dwayne Archibald died on August 20 at GPH after spending some time in medical institution. On August 15 Mark Campbell, 37, was taken to the hospital after sustaining stab wounds and last Wednesday Adrian Bishop, 20, was also stabbed and hospitalized.
Stabroek News had learnt from Beharry’s relative that he was consuming alcohol in a shop the day police received information about the stolen articles and arrested him. He said the man was taken to court on Thursday and he was shocked to receive the news about his death.
Krishna Deepnarine, another uncle, had said that although the unmarried Beharry loved to drink he was very quiet and helpful. “He would come in easy when he drink; he don’t say anything to anybody,” Beharry’s uncle had said.
Meanwhile, referring to a statement issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs dated August 21, 2009 but received by this newspaper on August 28, 2009, insisted that Beharry was not “mentally disturbed.”
The Ministry of Home Affairs had said that following Beharry’s death it was discovered that the Prison Authorities were in breach of the Prisons Act and the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (UNSMRTP). Two sections of the UNSMRTP, which make provisions for dealing with “Prisoners of Unsound Mind, and Insane and Mentally Abnormal Prisoners,” were breached.
The Prison Authorities, the ministry had said, has since been instructed “to take immediate steps to deal with other prisoners deemed to be of unsound mind/insane and mentally abnormal, until the Ministry of Home Affairs, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, work out the modalities for the detention of these prisoners.” The Guyana Police Force was also asked to investigate the death of Beharry, and to submit a report within twenty-four hours but there has been indication about whether this was done. “Nothing didn’t wrong with me nephew,” an upset Tulsiram said yesterday, “not a thing didn’t wrong with he…he didn’t have no mental problem or nothing like that. We don’t know where they get that from.”
