Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee, Police Commissioner Henry Greene and Crime Chief Seelall Persaud visited the parents of Sheema Mangar yesterday but could not tell them anything new about the progress of testing on a piece of key fabric.
Disappointment, Radica Thakoor said, continues to swamp her and adds to her frustration. The visit by the top officials, she explained, was prompted by a letter she sent to President Bharrat Jagdeo last Monday. The letter was copied to Rohee and Greene, she said.
Her daughter Sheema, 20, was run over and dragged under the car of the robber who stole her mobile phone on the evening of September 15, 2010.
The bank employee, who had chased after the robber, died early the next morning at the St Joseph Mercy Hospital from the many injuries she sustained.
In the letter, Thakoor said, she again expressed her dissatisfaction at the investigation being conducted by police.
“I said in the letter that I am poor and I do not have big government connections and because of this I think my daughter’s death is not being taken seriously,” Thakoor stated.
This is the second time this year that Thakoor is voicing her concerns. The woman said that when the minister and two senior police officials arrived they told her that they had been directed to visit her by Jagdeo.
Thakoor further stated that she was not satisfied with any of the answers the officials had to give her.
“Rohee did most of the talking and I asked them what happened to my daughter’s samples which had been sent for testing and he told me that the sample was in Barbados and that it was being worked on,” Thakoor said.
In late September 2010 police had arrested a man and taken his car into custody. Fabric, which resembled the uniform Mangar was wearing when she was dragged under the robber’s vehicle, was discovered beneath the suspect car. A sample of this fabric was then sent overseas for testing.
It has been more than six months since Mangar was killed and since police sent the fabric for testing to determine whether the piece found under the suspect’s car matches the uniform the deceased was wearing on the day in question.
The Home Affairs Minister, Thakoor reported, further told her that the sample is at a laboratory in Barbados.
“He told me that I have to understand that the lab would have other samples to be tested which were there before and that we would have to wait our turn…he told me that I have to understand that there have been many murders and that police have many cases piled up on them,” the woman said.
Oh January 14 at a press conference Rohee had said that the samples were sent to the US for testing in relation to the murder of Sheema Mangar. “We have sent some pieces of evidence for DNA testing to be done overseas,” the minister had said when he was asked about the matter. The minister had stressed that the samples were not sent to a Caribbean country as was usually done.
“I don’t know how they’re telling me these samples are in Barbados now…honestly I just more confused now after they come to see me,” Thakoor said.
Thakoor said that she is now unsure of what her next move will be and the only thing about which she is certain is that she will not give up on her fight for justice. “I feel like I hitting my head against a concrete wall over and over…they came to my house to basically tell me nothing.
They are telling me to have patience and I have been waiting patiently for more than six months. They need to work,” the woman stated.
