-paint tests not yet done
Frustrated at what seems to be stalled police investigations, Salimoon Rahaman – the mother of missing boy, Ricky Jainarine – fears that she will get no justice nine months after two men died and Ricky went missing following a boat collision in the Essequibo River.
“We ain’t hearing nothing from the police. Nothing, nothing at all”, she said on Sunday. “I feel so frustrated and it’s a very sad story and up to now we don’t know where Ricky is”, she added. “We don’t feel we gon get justice. I done sey we na gon get justice because no one saying anything”, she said adding that she still believes that Ricky is somewhere. She said she wants the police to say something to her and speed up tests that were supposed to be done on paint samples retrieved from the boat.
Rahaman said that a visit to the police last month yielded nothing. She said she asked about tests that were to be done on paint samples recovered from the boat but the law enforcement officials made “all kind of excuse” and would not give a definitive answer.
Ricky went missing nine months ago following a boat collision in the Essequibo River. His 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.
Relatives believe that rogue coastguards were involved in the incident but it is not clear how it occurred. Rahaman had scoured the Essequibo in search of her son in the weeks following the incident but her searches failed to yield any sign of the lad. Relatives believe that a bag that washed up at Wakenaam shortly after the incident and then disappeared; had contained his remains.
Relatives believe the rogue coast guards were involved and had rammed the boat, robbed the men and killed them. An investigation by the Maritime Administration Department 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. A Guyana Defence Force investigation was “inconclusive” but it did find that the Coast Guard boat was in the river at the same time as the boat the trio was in. The blue paint samples from the Coast Guard boat were handed over to the police for testing.
Up to February the tests, which could determine whether the Coast Guard boat was involved, were still to be done. Crime Chief Seelall Persaud had told this newspaper then 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”.
Rahaman and other members of the public believe that Coast Guard ranks were involved in the incident and had murdered the trio. Their suspicions were heightened after three Coast Guard ranks were charged with killing Bartica gold dealer, Dweive Kant Ramdass in the Essequibo 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.
Meantime, Rahaman said that relatives have stopped their protest which they held whenever the men charged with Ramdass’ death appear in court. She said that the men’s relatives have threatened them and they are fearful.
