More than six months after the Essequibo River boat incident that left two men dead and ten-year-old Ricky Jainarine missing, tests on paint samples that could determine whether a Coast Guard boat was involved, are still to be done.
When contacted on Thursday, Crime Chief Seelall Persaud said that the equipment to do the tests has been installed but the tests have not been done. He stated that there are other cases, where analyses have to be done, that have priority over this one. According to the Crime Chief, another problem is that the analyst has to be in court very often, “almost every day”.
An investigation by the Maritime Administration Department (MARAD) had found blue paint on the green Coast Guard vessel. And there were green paint marks on the blue and white boat that the trio was in. Persons had also reported that in the days following August 11, the Coast Guard boat was dry-docked for three days and there were reports that a section had been painted over. The blue paint samples from the Coast Guard boat were handed over to the police for testing.
Ricky’s father, Jainarine Dinanauth, 45, and a family friend, Henry Gibson, 45, died in the August 11 incident. That evening, the three were heading to Hog Island in the Essequibo River. The bodies of the two men were discovered in the shattered boat the next morning but there was no sign of Ricky. Since then, a relentless search by Ricky’ mother Salimoon Rahaman failed to yield any sign of the lad.
Rahaman and other members of the public believe that Coast Guard ranks were involved in the incident and had murdered the men. Their suspicions were heightened after three Coast Guard ranks were charged with killing Bartica gold dealer, Dweive Kant Ramdass in the Essequibo River. The Guyana Defence Force (GDF) investigated but said this was “inconclusive” though the Force’s Board of Inquiry found that the Coast Guard vessel –RC12, was in the Essequibo River at the time that Dinanauth and the two others were in the river.
Relatives have also pointed to the fact that the other boat involved in the incident did not contact the authorities following the incident.
Suspicious too was the fact that items Dinanauth had on his person were missing though his licensed firearm was left in his pocket. He had just returned from the interior, where he mined and reportedly had some raw gold on his person along with over $500,000 and a gold watch, all of which was missing when his body was found. He also had a bag that has not been found.
The autopsy results had shown that both men had died of asphyxiation due to drowning but that there was also blunt trauma to the head, chest and stomach. It was postulated that the men could have been beaten and their heads held under water. This also seemed likely as the bodies were found in the shattered boat and not in the water.