Indramattie Boladass’s relatives say they are determined to get justice for her and have now sought the help of Red Thread to ensure that the matter is fully investigated as it should have been initially.
They believe that Boladass died after she was seriously beaten by her husband at their Coconut Dam, Cane Grove home on March 2. However, Rampertab Boladass has since denied ever beating his now dead wife and insists that she sustained her injuries after she fell twice in their yard that day.
Hamawantie Singh, the dead woman’s sister, visited the Red Thread office yesterday where she spoke with women’s rights activist Karen De Souza.
“I reported everything to Karen,” Singh told Stabroek News late last evening via telephone, “and she told me that she has already spoken to a senior police official and will be arranging a meeting with the Health Minister to address the quality of health care my sister received just before her death.”
Singh continues to insist that her sister died as a result of the alleged beating from Rampertab. The man, she pointed out, has since spoken to other newspapers and his story is continuously changing.
“His changing story alone should be enough for the police to realize that they did something wrong in ignoring this matter,” Singh stated.
More than a week after the alleged beating Boladass succumbed to her wounds (on March 15) at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH). She was transferred there on March 12 from the Mahaicony Hospital. It was only on her arrival at GPH that an x-ray was done and it was discovered that Boladass had suffered a broken hip bone.
A post-mortem report later revealed that she died from a heart-attack and that she had sustained four broken ribs as well as the broken hip. There were marks of violence all over Boladass’s body, relatives had said and provided pictures of these. The day before her death, they said, the woman had indicated that Rampertab had indeed beaten her.
Despite this, Crime Chief Seelall Persaud later told Stabroek News that there was nothing to investigate in Boladass’s death. “You reported that she [Boladass] died of a heart attack. She died of a natural cause so what is there to investigate?” he had asked.
Although Boladass died of a heart attack, her sister had said, it is believed that it was induced by the severity of the alleged beating she suffered on March 2.
“There is no way,” Singh again stressed yesterday, “absolutely no way me sister coulda fall and knock she self and sustain all those injuries in those places.”
These issues have since been raised by Karen De Souza in a letter to this newspaper’s editor. There has also been a call from local security service provider Roshan Khan for police to properly investigate Boladass’s death.
The following are some questions raised in De Souza’s letter which was published on March 24: “One could be excused for thinking that Mr Seelall Persaud has some reason for refusing to investigate the reports of violence against Ms Boladass. Has Mr Persaud satisfied himself that the broken bones and bruises displayed by the medical examination at the PHG were the result of a fall as the husband claims? And on the health front, have the Chief Medical Officer and Minister of Health been following the reports of the death of Ms Boladass, and have they ascertained that the autopsy procedures and reports provide adequate information in relation to death – causes, contributing and underlying factors and descriptive information about the state of the body under examination? Are these health officials satisfied that all necessary medical attention was given to Ms Boladass?”
Meanwhile, Singh also told Stabroek News that after her sister was hospitalized Rampertab was taken into police custody, questioned and released. Later, when Boladass died her widow gave police a statement and was allowed to return home. There has since been no move by police to further question Rampertab Boladass.