A man has been taken into custody in connection with the death of Bath Settlement, West Coast Berbice carpenter Koomalram Chattergoon, whose decomposed body was found on Wednesday.
Chattergoon, 59, also known as ‘Friday’, was yesterday laid to rest after police indicated to his family that they were unable to perform a post-mortem examination on the body, due to the state of decomposition.
According to reports, a rice farmer was on his way to tend to his crop in thebackdam at Bush Lot and discovered the man’s body floating in the canal. Chattergoon’s swollen body was fully clothed.
This newspaper learnt that one person was in custody assisting with investigations.
According to Chattergoon’s wife, Amloon Nisha, the last time she saw him was about two weeks back. However, she was aware of his whereabouts for a week. The following week, she was informed that an acquaintance, identified as “Black Eye” had taken him into the creek to work with him. She was concerned at the report, since Chattergoon was unhealthy, but she was told he was going to return Friday (yesterday).
However, on Thursday after being alerted that “Black Eye” had returned from the creek, she went and questioned him about Chattergoon’s whereabouts, only to be told that he had sent him out since last week Thursday.
After demanding to know the whereabouts of her husband, she was later told by the man that he sent Chattergoon out with another person. Nisha subsequently made a report to the police. “And go, me go mek a report, police tell me right deh them a bring out wan body, if me can go and identify the person… and when me go, me see that is he,” she said, adding that she was able to identify her husband by his shirt that he was last seen with. The woman also related that she observed that her husband’s scalped was gone but she was unable to see if there were any marks of violence or injury.
Nisha noted that it was a common thing for Chattergoon not to report home after outings for days but she was always aware of him being in the village. He was an alcoholic, she explained, adding that his family constantly quarrelled with him to stop drinking but he never listened. Nevertheless, she described him as a very good person, noting that he never quarrelled or fought with anyone, even though he drank alcohol heavily.
Chattergoon, who was a part-time carpenter, is survived by his wife and four children.
