-brother was trailed following money withdrawal
Minutes after two gunmen on a motorcycle fatally shot one of two brothers and robbed them of a quantity of cash they were arrested by police in East Demerara.

Lakeram Bishundial, called Mohan, of Manilla, Mahaica was shot twice sometime between 3pm and 4 pm yesterday. He was pronounced dead on arrival at a private city hospital some time after 4 pm.

This newspaper has since learnt from a senior police source in the ‘C’ Division that the armed robbery which resulted in the man’s death occurred at Hope, East Coast Demerara.

The deceased, Stabroek News understands, had stopped at the Hope location to speak with his younger brother, Totaram “Ramo” Bishundial. Totaram, according to relatives, was getting married this weekend and was returning to the Mahaica location from Georgetown where he’d gone to withdraw some money from the bank. They could not say how much money the man had in his possession at the time of the robbery.

Just before the incident, this newspaper learnt, the brothers had been speaking to each other on their mobile phones. Lakeram was on his way to Cove and John in his truck to collect some chairs for the wedding and Totaram was on his way back to the Manilla home with the money he’d withdrawn to cover wedding expenses.

As the brothers drove closer to each other, relatives said they’d learnt from Totaram, that they decided to stop so they could better discuss their plans for the rest of the day.

They both stopped their vehicles along the Hope Public Road (in the vicinity of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority Pump Station).

Totaram, relatives said, disembarked his vehicle and crossed the road to where his older brother had stopped. It was during this time, Stabroek News understands, that the gunmen pulled up alongside Lakeram’s parked truck.

“This man who said he see everything,” a relative later told this newspaper, “tell us that this motorbike with these two men just pull up next to these guys (the Bishundial brothers) and a little bit after he heard gunshots.”

Relatives said that Totaram told them that the gunmen “just ride up and demand that he give them the bag with the money”. It is believed that the bandits trailed the younger Bishundial brother from Georgetown. Totaram subsequently jumped into a nearby trench to escape the gunmen, relatives said. It is unclear exactly when, during the incident, Lakeram was wounded.

However, relatives told this newspaper that Lakeram was shot twice by one of the two men who escaped on their motorcycle immediately after taking the money from Totaram’s vehicle. A long time before Lakeram arrived at the hospital, relatives said, he’d stopped breathing.

Just after 5 pm yesterday, when Stabroek News visited the hospital, the pain-filled screams of Lakeram’s wife could be heard.

Commander of Police ‘C’ Division Gavin Primo, speaking with Stabroek News via telephone hours after the incident, explained that initial reports reaching him said that one of the gunmen had been arrested in Victoria while the second was apprehended in an abandoned house along the East Coast of Demerara. Police last night said a third suspect was arrested.

Lakeram’s truck, in which he was sitting when he was shot, was moved to the compound of the Cove and John Police Station.

His brother’s vehicle, which contained the cash, was left at the hospital from where relatives were expected to move it to their Manilla home.

Meanwhile, at the Bishundials’ Manilla home all preparations for Totaram’s Hindu wedding had ceased. The wedding, relatives said, has been cancelled.

Lakeram’s wife and his mother sat side by side sobbing as relatives attempted to comfort them. “Ow, ow meh son,” Lakeram’s mother wailed, “Ow…he na had to go this way…ow meh child…me ah feel this one in me belly.”

The brothers, relatives explained, were managing the family business of rice farming and cattle rearing. In addition to his wife and other immediate family members Lakeram also leaves to mourn his one-and-a-half-year-old daughter.

Just after 6.30 pm when relatives spoke with Stabroek News Totaram was still with police giving a statement. Up to that time, relatives said, they’d still not been informed that police had managed to arrest the perpetrators.

“We are just looking for justice at this point…we are in deep shock and are very much pained that we have lost a loved one and at the same time we are relieved that we did not lose both of them…if the police have them [the perpetrators] then the law will deal with them,” a US-based relative, who came for Totaram’s wedding, told this newspaper.