Three security guards are in excruciating pain after they were tortured for several hours on Saturday after being accused of stealing a quantity of items from Mohamed Enterprises on Lombard Street where they worked.
Security supervisor, 63-year-old Bansgopaul Sookhraj of Lot 10 Camp Street along with Imtiaz Bacchus of Albouys Street, Albouystown and Ousman Boodhoo Sahadeo, age 59, of Middle Road said they were repeatedly struck with a baseball bat, had soapy water poured into their mouths and were gagged and bound with scotch tape before being threatened not to report the matter. The men alleged that they were brutalized by four or five persons, one after the other.
Sookhraj sustained the brunt of the blows. Both of his hands are broken an x ray showed. His head is visibly swollen and he finds it unbearable to stand or walk. Bacchus according to a medical report obtained at the Georgetown Hospital sustained five fractured ribs and a badly swollen right foot. Sahadeo called ‘Fat boy’ has black and blue marks on both arms, has trouble hearing and sight in his left eye which is swollen has been affected.
The men have since reported the matter to the Brickdam Police Station and despite their fears are hoping for justice.
A man who refused to release his name but confirmed that he was the owner’s son denied the men’s allegation when Stabroek News visited the business. He expressed surprise at the allegations that the men were beaten on the premises before stressing that they were dismissed on Saturday morning after fire extinguishers, a trolley, 15 gallon of diesel, gas bottles and other items were stolen the previous night.
The man described the three guards as “drunkards”, who were not performing their duties. He said that on Friday night only Sookhraj worked as the others were drunk. He alleged that on Saturday morning, only Sookhraj was on the property and he too was intoxicated. Asked if a report was made to the police about the missing items he said that they were “planning” to make one.
Subsequently an employee identified as Safraz insisted that this newspaper could not publish the matter and should this be done the paper would be sued.
Earlier when Stabroek News visited Sookhraj at his home, he was sitting on a bed. He was visibly in pain and could not move from the spot were he was sitting without assistance.
It was explained to Stabroek News that Sookhraj who has been working with the business for the last seven years had sent home Bacchus since he had to return to the location at midday the following day. Sahadeo was sent home earlier since he was unwell.
Around 1:30 pm on Saturday, a security guard came to Sookhraj’s home and before taking him to the store, picked up Sahadeo at his residence.
Sookhraj recalled that they were informed that things were stolen and were later taken into the office where they were shown camera footage.
He insisted that at no time did he see himself although the group of men insisted that he was sitting in a chair.
“Then all of a sudden they just start beating me with a baton and a gun. They beat me for more than an hour, all over meh body, on meh back, foot and buttocks”, the distraught man said.
He said that apparently someone had jumped the fence and had stolen the items but he said that neither he nor the others were in any way involved in the theft. The man said that in the middle of the beating, they were given soap powder water to drink and something was sprayed into their mouths.
Shocked
“Ah lef shock at the treatment ah get. After they started beating me ah tell dem that ah gon pay back for everything”, Sookhraj added.
His granddaughter, Anu said that the elderly man was asleep when the guard who was dressed in a white shirt-jac and black pants, came. According to her, the man told her grandfather that he was wanted urgently.
The woman said that she later became worried as several hours had elapsed and when she contacted the business she was told that Sookhraj was not there.
Later Anu said that she saw a battered Sookhraj walking slowly through the gate. “He coulda barely walk. He just come and sit pon de step saying that they beat he real bad and he was trembling bad”, the upset woman recalled.
Meanwhile, Sahadeo who began working at the establishment in March recalled that one of the daytime security guards, who he knows well, went to his home and said he was needed at the store.
He was not told for what but when he went out to a waiting car he saw Sookhraj sitting inside.
They said that soon after they arrived at the store, the beating started. “They ask me if ah know anything but ah tell them no. It was four of dem and each of dem man been tekin turns…”, he recalled. He said that at one point attempts were made to tie his head with a plastic bag adding that this had been done to Sookhraj but it was removed shortly after.
The man said that he later asked for some water to drink and was given water with soap powder inside. Shortly after, he was instructed to wash his face and “push meh hand down meh throat and vomit out de soap water”.
The man said that during the ordeal he was slapped and cuffed so hard that he still can’t see well out of his left eye and he had to pour oil in his ear to help restore the hearing.
“Dem torture we one by one”, he said adding that he managed to catch a taxi home after the men instructed him to leave the premises.
The upset man said that on Sunday, the same man who had collected him from home returned and offered him $10, 000 to buy tablets “but ah tell he me ain’t want that and he lef”.
Strange men
Bacchus who began working at the company in June when he turned up at midday on Saturday as scheduled, was told by an employee that a trolley was missing. The man said that later he was summoned to the office where video footage was being reviewed.
The man said that he saw himself in the footage then a “long time after”, he saw Sookhraj sitting in a chair and then strange men in another section of the yard. He explained that there are security cameras at various points.
According to Bacchus, he saw one of the men fetching a trolley but he could not make out his face since the place was dark.
“Dem man just start slapping me up…. Then they started beating and cuffing me and the other men”, he said adding that one of the employees came up with a baseball bat and started beating him on his foot.
“Yall lying, ya surprising”, the man recalled one of the men shouting. He said that he maintained that he knew nothing about the articles but the men insisted that he benefited from the theft in some way.
“The more ah talk is the more deh beating me. He (name given) tell me zip up, you like talk and don’t sey nothing when you lef hey”, he said.
He told a similar story of being given soapy water to drink. He said he struggled to walk home and when he arrived he fainted. At this point the man’s wife interjected and said that it was a friend who helped him into the house.
She said that her husband wet himself as the blows were being inflicted and she noticed that he was trembling. The woman said that Bacchus refused to go to the hospital for treatment since the men threatened further injury if he said anything. She said that she gave him some pain medication and some hot tea and this revived him.
The three men insist that they want the perpetrators to be punished since they were wrongly blamed for the theft and did not deserve the treatment they got.
Several relatives pointed out that the men “were beaten like animals”, and since they were accused of stealing, the police should have been contacted.
“They tek de law into their own hands and that ain’t right”, a relative said.
