Relatives of a 29-year-old labourer of No. 59 Village, Corentyne who was found hanging in his veranda around 10:35 pm on Sunday feel that he was murdered because his body bore marks of violence.
They are requesting a full investigation to determine how the man, Ramnarine ‘Sham’ Motilall met his demise. They believe that his assailants strung him up on the rope after the attack.
Contacted, Commander Stephen Merai told this newspaper that he had not received such a report but “in cases like this we would have to wait on the results of the post-mortem.” He said too that an investigation would have to be launched.
Residents told Stabroek News (SN) that just before the body was discovered they saw
when six men were beating him.
He was screaming and calling out to his reputed wife; “Ow Usha come help me nah, dem (attackers) ah bruk meh back… dem gon kill meh.”
According to the neighbours, they heard when the man screamed loudly and then there was silence. Although they suspected that something was amiss they were afraid to go out of their homes to investigate.
They then retired to bed and shortly after they heard Motilall’s wife shouting, “Sham hang ‘eself.” By then the attackers had already left the scene.
Police from the No. 62 Outpost arrived and ordered a relative to cut down the body before it was taken to the Skeldon Hospital Mortuary.
Earlier, neighbours recalled, Motilall returned home from a wedding house under the influence of alcohol. After he did not see his wife he went over to the neighbour’s house opposite and called out for her.
He did not get any response and apparently got angry while shouting that “dem carry meh wife fuh sport…” He then returned home for a cutlass which he used to chop at a stall the neighbours had made to sell clothing.
During this time, someone informed the owners what was happening and they hurried home along with the man’s reputed wife, in a car from another wedding house.
When they arrived they started shouting, “weh he deh? Abe gon kill he [expletive] now” before finding him and starting the attack in front of Motilall’s house.
They then took him under the house and continued to beat him. One of the suspects who carried out the attack was said to be a Neighbourhood Police.
Relatives told this newspaper that one of the ranks observed that the man was bleeding from a wound at the back of his head and when he questioned the wife she responded that he had a “sore.”
The officer also enquired about the “black and blue marks” on his hands and she said that “he had that.” In tears, Motilall’s mother, Pulmattie ‘Baby’ Punwasi, 59, of Better Hope, East Coast Demerara told SN, “Me suspect that them kill me son… Ma beg fuh justice fuh me pickney; me want fuh know how me pickney dead.”
She had received a call from his wife around 11 pm who told her “yuh son dead.” She later learnt that he supposedly committed suicide.
Staff at the mortuary did not allow anyone to view her son’s remains saying “it is a police matter.” She and other relatives returned yesterday morning and were only allowed to go in after “we begged dem fuh see de body because we had to measure it.”
The distraught woman said she “could not bear to see my son; me cry out for mercy for me son this [yesterday] morning. Blood was all over he head. Ow me gosh, dem tell me me son hang heself but weh this blood come from.”
Her eldest son, Radesh and her sister and niece went to the No. 51 Police Station to tell the police what they saw and the police also told them that they could not do anything until the PM is completed.
The police were also unable to say when the PM would be performed and promised to contact the relatives.
Punwasi said when she asked the wife why she did not help Motilall when he was calling out for her “she ask me wah she coulda do.”
She said that the following morning when a relative went to the house to pick up his identification card she noticed spots of blood under the house.
Motilall and the woman have two children, ages one year and four-months-old.
According to relatives, he was a “quiet person but the only bad habit he had was that he liked to drink rum.”
