A D’ Edward, West Bank Berbice man lost his life last Tuesday while assisting two fishermen to search for their stolen engines along the Berbice River.
Relatives had believed that the man, Hafeez Khan was beaten to death but police sources said foul play has been ruled out after a post-mortem examination proved that he died by drowning.
Khan, a former mechanic in the US, was at the time escorting the fishermen, Harry Ramnarine and Ramgsammy to the spot where the stolen engines, worth almost $900,000 each, were when he was said to have fallen overboard.
Ramnarine told Stabroek News that they had just reached their destination and were going through a “track,” located next to a creek.
Ramnarine had returned to the boat after getting some “ants bite” and shortly after saw the other men bringing Khan out and “pressing his stomach to pump out water.”
He inquired what happened and they responded that he had fallen overboard.
Ramnarine became worried and thinking that “we could have saved his life, we decided to put him back on the boat” and take him to the hospital.
He also contacted the police who were also supposed to have joined them on the trip later. The police caught up with them as they were heading back out but by then Khan appeared to have succumbed.
Ramnarine recalled too that Khan was accompanied on the trip by three friends that he had been consuming alcohol with the previous day.
The men carried a “big bottle of rum and about half a mile before reaching our destination he took two big drink.”
Prior to going on the search, Khan and another man had an argument when they were heard mentioning the stolen engines.
The police were informed and while at the station Khan said “man if y’all want the engines, give me a boat…”
Ramnarine said he was willing to provide the boat and even offered to pay $100,000 while Rangasammy said he would pay $50,000 for the recovery.
The fishermen had also arranged for the police to make the trip together in another boat but Khan kept insisting that they go ahead. Ramnarine agreed because “I was anxious to get my engine” and another boat waited on the police.
He said he regretted that they went ahead and left the police.
He was sorry too that Khan lost his life and that they never got to reach the supposed spot where the engines were.
In an earlier report carried in this newspaper, Ramnarine had said that in February he and Rangasammy showed up at the spot where the boats with engines were normally moored and discovered the engines missing.
The watchman on duty was apparently sleeping and could not say what happened. He was taken into custody and subsequently released.
