The suspects who were held in connection with the murder of US Army doctor, Captain Max Kungel, 42, have been released from police custody as investigations are “going quiet.”
No charges have been laid against the suspects as nothing incriminating has so far been found against them and the 72-hour incarceration period had elapsed.
A police source told Stabroek News that they had no evidence either that another suspect, Omesh Thakurdin, a paternal cousin, who was found hanging in his cell at the No 51 Police Station, was involved in the killing.
But, the source said, he was wanted for questioning because he would have been able to provide vital information leading to the killing.
His death has slowed up the investigations.
A team from the US Army arrived in the country to be part of the last rites of Dr. Kungel which was held on Tuesday and to conduct a probe.
The source said the team has not been working together with the police on the case.
Dr. Kungel’s bloodied body was discovered in the No 72 Village backlands around 8 am on Sunday, March 17 with gunshot wounds. The body was upright in the driver’s side of his rented Toyota Tacoma.
The following day, Thakurdin along with others, including a maternal cousin were questioned at the Springlands Police Station. Around 8:50 that evening he was transferred to the No 51 Police Station.
Police were conducting checks of his cell around 5:20 the following morning when he was discovered hanging from the grill work.
His younger brother, Rakesh had told Stabroek News that his brother who was a “soft and kind-hearted person” was never suicidal and never had any problems.
He said if his brother had indeed taken his own life it was because he was devastated by the pressure he was going through with the police.
Meanwhile, relatives were held after there were reports about a family dispute over Dr. Kungel’s father’s estate in the US.
His sister, Anjie Kungel, a certified nursing assistant in the US had said that her paternal relatives here are in no way involved in the dispute, which is between immediate family members. The matter is before the court in the US.
She had said too that her brother was very “lovable, outgoing and soft-spoken” and “always had a private life.”
She wished that the person who did it would be caught because his killing was uncalled for.
Anjie said she and her brother who came into the country on March 7 for their paternal grandmother’s death anniversary were expected to leave the day after the body was found.
Another close relative also told this newspaper, “We need justice, we need answers, we need to know what happened to our loved one. Police need to come out and go into the direction of the killer.”
He described Dr. Kungel as being “very community oriented. There is nobody in the community who asked him for something and would not get it. If his cousins said they like something he was wearing he would take it off and give it to them.”
He said too that it was very hard to lose someone as kind and generous as Dr. Kungel and recalled that he wanted to “give his friends a little farewell drink.”
According to the relative, the doctor had planned to assist financially to complete the interior of Thakurdin’s unpainted two-bedroom house because “he admired how he had progressed…”
Relatives had said that Dr. Kungel had kept a meeting with them the Friday evening before his demise to discuss his family issues.
