Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the chopping to death of 39-year-old Rojin Basdeo of Number 0 Village, Corentyne at a cattle ranch in the Backdam at Number 56 Village, Corentyne around 11.30 pm on Friday. They have the suspect in custody assisting with the investigations.
According to the police, initial investigations have revealed that Basdeo and other workers were imbibing, when an argument developed between him and another man during which he was chopped in the neck with a cutlass.
However, the dead man’s sister Padmini Basdeo said she was informed by her nephew who was at the scene at the time of the chopping, that Basdeo was in his hammock lying down when all of a sudden the accused ‘Ramesh’ came with two cutlasses and started chopping him.
She said, “me nephew call me and tell me to send Rocky [her son] fuh he and me ask he wa happen and he say that Ramesh chop up Cha-Cha”.
The grieving woman said she then became worried and started to question her nephew who related the details of the incident to her over the phone. He also told her that after the suspect was finished chopping Basdeo, he turned to him but he ran quickly and hid at the corner of the street and then called her.
She said she became worried about her nephew and sent her husband for him and when he arrived they immediately went to the Number 56 Village Police Station and lodged a complaint. However, the officer told them that he was the only one there and could not leave the station unattended.
Out of desperation, she said, she asked the officer on duty if her husband and other relatives could go to the scene and he consented, advising them to bring Basdeo out and take him to the hospital.
When the relatives went to the backdam they were greeted by Basdeo’s motionless body lying in the hammock. They wrapped the body in a sheet and went back to Padmini’s home, where he used to live. They then summoned the police who accompanied them to the hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
