-no justice yet
Already for this year, four women in Berbice have been murdered, allegedly at the hands of their partners, but so far justice has not been served.
Three of these murders occurred in the month of March and the other in January. The latest woman to lose her life as a result of domestic violence was Lilowtie Seeram, 31 of Glasgow, East Bank Berbice.
Her husband, Rooplall ‘Kelly’ Boodhoo, 35 fatally chopped her and wounded her mother, Latta Inderdeo around 1.30 am on March 27 following an argument over his drinking habit.
Seeram sustained wounds to the back of her head and hands while three fingers on her left hand were severed. Her mother suffered chops to her right shoulder and left palm.
The two other women who were murdered in March were Jairool ‘Chico’ Rohoman, 42, of Betsy Ground, East Canje, and Esther ‘Kamla’ Albert, 44, of Grant 1803 Crabwood Creek.
On March 9, Rohoman’s badly battered body was found floating in the Canje River, two days after she left to go to the home of her former reputed husband.
And Albert was pronounced dead on arrival at the Skeldon Hospital on March 1 following a severe beating from her husband the evening before.
The first woman to be murdered in Berbice for 2010 was 43-year-old Nalini ‘Nalo’ Bhoge.
On January 25 her husband, Budh Narayan Bhoge called ‘Minko’ made the gruesome discovery of her badly battered body in a bedroom.
In the meantime, a police source told Stabroek News that they are still on the hunt for Seeram’s attacker and have been checking at different locations after receiving reports about where he may be hiding. So far they have come up empty-handed but have vowed that “we will get him.”
This newspaper spoke to Inderdeo after she was released from hospital and she said she was “leaving everything in God’s hands.” Her condition seemed to be improving but she complained of feeling a lot of pain.
Reliving the ordeal
Inderdeo, a staunch Christian told Stabroek News “If it wasn’t for Jesus I would have been a dead woman.” She was still haunted by the memories of the ordeal but believed that prayers would heal everything.
Recounting the details of the horrifying episode, she said she tried desperately to escape her attacker who eventually caught up with her at the gate. As the blood flowed from her wounds, she pleaded with him to spare her life.
In a fit of rage he lifted the cutlass and attempted to chop her again but had a sudden change of heart and lowered his weapon.
She said: “When he go fuh chop me, me beg he, ow, na chop me more… and he look at me and he musbe see the chops on me hands how dem bleeding and he tell me ‘Arite, must look after me children fuh me.’”
He then told the woman he was going to kill himself before escaping towards the backlands with a rope and the cutlass.
She recalled that she was attacked after she tried to defend her daughter as the man hacked away at her mercilessly.
According to her the problem stemmed from Boodhoo returning home late after a drinking spree with a brother and his friends.
Inderdeo was in the other bedroom and when he came in she fell asleep soon after. She was rudely awakened by the couple arguing loudly. “Me hear Kelly say something and me daughter asked, ‘So why you come home now and a mek fight?’”
The argument continued and Boodhoo told his wife, “Me can beat you and yuh mumma inside this house.” She said she became frightened and sat up on her bed and started to pray.
Her daughter then ran out of their bedroom and tried to run down the inside stairs. She heard someone pelting the other with a “boots” and her daughter asking Boodhoo why he was kicking her.
Inderdeo decided to intervene and tried to get Boodhoo to calm down after he knocked the television set down. “Ah tell he don’t do that man, pick it up and he pick it up and so fast he go under the bed for the cutlass.”
Her daughter ran around the bed and crouched in a corner but Boodhoo climbed on the bed and “start fuh fire chops on she.” Inderdeo struggled to take the cutlass away but he turned his attention to her instead, hitting her head with the weapon.
Terrified, she ran to the front door and tried frantically to open it. But by then the man had run out of the room and dealt her chops on her hands as she tried to block the blows. She did not even realize she was injured until she saw the blood.
The man ran back into the bedroom and “put more chops on she and she was hollering, ‘Ow mommy, me go dead.”
Boodhoo ran with the cutlass towards Inderdeo again but by then she had already opened the door and as she ran down the front stairs he returned to the bedroom and continued chopping his wife.
She was still struggling to “open the chain on the gate” when he caught up with her, but changed his mind about chopping her further.
She recalled that after the gate was finally opened he ran out while she ran to the home of her friend, ‘Bucky,’ located obliquely opposite (behind an empty lot) and called out to her.
She said the friend then shouted for Boodhoo’s brother who rushed over to the scene along with other persons. He was heard saying, “Ow Kelly, look wah yuh do.”
Inderdeo had been staying with her daughter and son-in-law and their children, Nerissa, 13 and Nicholas, 11 for about one year. At the time of the chopping the children were spending the night at the home of their grandfather, Ramnarine Seeram in nearby Edinburgh Village.
Abuse
Inderdeo recalled that Boodhoo constantly abused her daughter but had “eased up” for a few months. The abuse started the day after Inderdeo’s mother who was spending time at the house, left.
Seeram was not the only member of the family who suffered abuse. Her aunt, Liza Nardeo-Inderdeo who resides in the United Kingdom commented on the article of the killing on the SN website that she too had been a victim of “cruel abuse.”
She said she was married and made to live with her “abuser” for eight years until she “found a way to escape this inhumane way of life.”
Nardeo-Inderdeo said too that she was “truly shocked and would have thought that in the 30 years that I have been gone there would have been some changes.”
The woman asked: “Why is there no help for women in Guyana, no voice for them, no refuge where they can escape this torment? I am sorry that my niece had to be the one to show example what I ran away from.”
She said too that women do not have to accept the abuse and that since she moved to the UK she realized that women have rights and she fights for them.
Seeram’s abuse was reported on several occasions but each time the matters would be “settled” and she would reunite with her husband.
Many other women in Berbice suffer abuse and they would leave their partners. But instead of moving on they would return to the abusive situations until in some cases it ends tragically.
The police have also been making arrests, but when the matters reach the courts, the women would decline to offer evidence against their partners.
Jairool ‘Chico’
Rohoman
Rohoman’s body bore marks of violence and was bound in a hog-tie with a canvas sling and a portion of her long hair. There was a chop to her chin and burns on her back, hand and other parts of her body. One of her eyes was also bulging out.
However, the results of the post-mortem examination (PME) proved inconclusive because of the body’s decomposed state. Pathologist Dr Vivikanand Brijmohan had told Stabroek News that this notwithstanding, he was not ruling out homicide.
Rohoman, a weeder at the Rose Hall Estate left home around 9 am to visit her reputed husband from whom she had been separated for some three months. When she did not return home, she was said to be missing and a search had been launched for her.
She had been living with the man for 17 years and moved out of his house three months ago with her sons after a misunderstanding. However, she would normally visit the man, a watchman at the Rose Hall estate, to assist him with cooking and other household chores.
He was held in connection with her murder but was released following the result of the post-mortem.
Ester ‘Kamla’ Albert
It was initially reported that Albert had fallen from her stairs following a drinking spree with her husband, Daveanand Albert, and was taken to the Skeldon Hospital where she was pronounced dead on arrival.
However, results of a port-mortem examination proved that she died from manual strangulation.
Apparently not realizing that the woman had been murdered, the man’s mother sent him to the Springlands Police Station to report his wife’s death. He never got there and has since disappeared.
Reports are that Albert’s husband hit her with a broom and dealt her several slaps. He also reportedly “choked” her before pushing her down the stairs.
According to a relative, the woman started to bleed from a wound in her head. The man then picked her up and tried to wash off the blood and put her on the bed. She remained there all night groaning in pain.
Early the following morning, after the woman appeared to be unconscious the man sent his 12-year-old son to call his mother who lives nearby to see what had happened and to bring some methylated sprits to try to revive her.
Nalini ‘Nalo’
hoge
Bhoge was found lying in a pool of blood with several chops and stab wounds on her neck as well as four stab wounds in her upper back. Her husband, Narayan Bhoge 51, was taken into custody along with five other persons.
They were released a few days later after nothing incriminating was found against them.
Police sources had told this newspaper that they were “still looking at some leads” in capturing her killer/s but so far no one has been brought to justice.
Bhoge was reportedly at home alone at the time of the murder.
Police found a bloodstained cutlass and an ice pick, suspected to be the murder weapons, at the scene.
It was later discovered that a quantity of gold jewellery that was in a drawer as well as $60,000 had been stolen. Relatives said too that the woman wore a lot of “gold bangles” but when her body was found only a ring was on her finger and the bangles were gone.
American passports belonging to her three daughters, Bharti, 12, Khishana, 10 and eight-year-old Praveena were found in the backyard in a plastic bag after they were apparently “dropped.”