Police are seeking legal advice on the way forward in the Good Hope beating to death case as the five suspects remain in custody.
Stabroek News was told yesterday that no post-mortem examination has been performed on the dead man, Kurt Mayers as so relative has come forward to positively identify him. The body is at the Georgetown Hospital mortuary.
A senior police officer told this newspaper that a file was prepared and has been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for advice. The 72 hours permitted by law to hold a suspect ends this morning.
According to the police, around 3:35 am on Tuesday, Mahendra Persaud, 32, of Good Hope reported that he had caught a man who was found stealing from his house.
Ranks responded and upon arrival at the address found Mayers in “a naked condition on the ground with his hands and feet tied and marks of violence about his body.”
A bag containing a quantity of jewellery, a cell phone and torchlight, which Persaud said was found in Mayers’ possession, was handed over to them.
The injured Mayers, who was slipping in and out of consciousness, was taken to the Georgetown Hospital and admitted to the Intensive Care Unit under guard. The injured man managed to tell investigators and hospital officials his name, age (30) and address (Better Hope South) before he died.
Mayers sustained severe head injuries and multiple fractures to his body during the incident. Later that day the Persaud, his brother Muneshwar, two cousins and a neighbour Stephen Singh were detained at the Vigilance Police Station.
The men’s relatives have described the arrests as unjust as according to them the men were innocent of any wrong doing. They said that after an alarm was raised many residents from nearby houses flocked the yard and it would be difficult to identify who was beating the man.
Police Commissioner Henry Greene has since said that two of the suspects were identified by another (suspect) as being directly involved in the beating.