Two years have passed since 16-year-old Vivian Singh Balrup of Reliance, East Canje was brutally murdered and relatives are still saddened that his killer(s) have not been caught and brought to justice.
Vivian left home in a taxi around 10 am on November 8 with the driver and a male cousin three years his senior for the Number 63 Beach, Corentyne. They picked up two teenaged female friends along the way.
His father, Kirpal Singh Balrup is still baffled as to how none of those persons or the other people at the beach knew how his son met his demise. He emphasized the need to know what his son did so wrong to deserve such a brutal end.
Vivian was severely battered at 63 Beach, sustaining several hits to the back of his head which caused his eyes to bulge. He was rushed to the emergency unit with a gaping wound which bled profusely.
He succumbed while arrangements were being made to have him transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital.
Vivian’s father and his mother, Nadira Balrup, who are still unable to put the horrible tragedy behind them had vowed that his death would not go in vain.
But despite carrying out their own investigations and sharing information with the police what they obtained nothing major has been done to solve the crime.
Balrup pointed out that “the key eyewitness” – one of the young ladies with whom Vivian had gone for a stroll on the beach – would be over 16 by now and would no longer require parental presence to be interviewed. He said the police should call her again for questioning.
According to him, he keeps “running and nobody listening to me… the police need to speed up the inquiry.”
He called on them to reopen the inquiry and do all they can to catch the killers so that his son’s death would not go in vain.
“Whoever did this to my son should come forward and say why they did it and pay for their actions,” he stressed. “I do not want this to be swept under the carpet and become another unsolved murder.”
Initially, police had arrested a few watermelon farmers after they received reports that the youth had stolen their fruit and that they had clubbed him to death.
The farmers were released shortly after without being charged because nothing incriminating was found against them.
Balrup subsequently learnt that two weeks before the murder some youths from the New Amsterdam Technical Institute tried to attack his son while he was in a car in New Amsterdam on the way to school.
He said a security guard who was working nearby told him that the youths surrounded the car and were opening the door. He also saw the boy moving from one end to the next in the backseat.
The car was able to proceed following the intervention of someone who appeared to be a teacher, Balrup was told. Reports are that the incident was apparently over a girl.
