The bloated bodies of fisherman, Pooran Mathoor, 39, of Cromarty Farm and his worker, Fernando ‘Rakesh’ Singh, 17, of Bush Lot, Corentyne were found on Monday and yesterday respectively; the fishing boat remains missing.
Mathoor’s wife, Savitri Singh, 32, told Stabroek News that they left home around 2 pm on Saturday and set out to sea in his 30-ft fishing boat from the Eversham koker.
Fernando’s cousin, Melissa told this newspaper that some youths from the village were searching for him when they stumbled upon his decomposed body along the dam at Babu John around 6 pm. The family and the police were informed and the body was removed.
Singh said it appeared as though her husband was badly beaten. The woman said that although her husband was not expected home until the following evening [Sunday] she had the feeling that something was wrong.
She said he does not go out very far to fish and would normally call her from sea. She made several calls to his phone but they went to voice mail.
She was at the Whim Police Station after 5 pm on Monday making a report when a police officer arrived at the station and said that a body was found.
She related to the police that he was clad in a red and white shirt and black pants and they confirmed that it was him. The body had already been taken to the mortuary where relatives later went to identify him.
Singh said her husband would normally take her to the Port Mourant market with his car around 3 am to sell the catch. After he did not return the night before, she called him again around that time on Monday.
She decided to go to the Eversham koker where she met some other fishermen in a few small boats repairing seines. They told her that they had not seen him.
Later in the day she and Fernando’s mother and other persons launched a search but came up empty-handed.
Piracy
Singh told this newspaper that her husband had been arrested twice after fishermen from No. 43 Village falsely reported that he was involved in piracy.
She said too that the fishermen had threatened to “done him out. But he don’t do dem things dat he does wuk honest.”
According to the woman, her husband worked hard to support her and their three children, ages, eight, 14 and 17.
She said he was also employed at the hydraulics department of the region. After he left work around 1 pm he would go out to sea to fish.
Singh insisted that her husband was never involved in piracy, noting that he had a 5-hp engine attached to his small boat.
Melissa said Fernando who started working with Mathoor six months ago had dropped out of school from second form.
The second of five brothers, he had to assist his single mother, Kalawattie Singh, known as ‘Gully’ to take care of his younger siblings. He also planted a cash crop farm while his mother worked as a domestic.
