With the change of government, relatives of Chris Jacob are hoping for justice that they believe they were denied since his death last year.
On November 23rd, the body of Jacob, 26, of Hauraruni Village, Soesdyke-Linden Highway, was found in a reservoir at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), Timehri.
Jacob, a maintenance engineer of the airport, had been involved in a reported assault and a resulting altercation just hours before his body was found.
No one was charged in relation to Jacob’s death and according to Jagat Jacob, the father of the dead man, the case file was sent back and forth from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to the Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) a few times but there was no progress.
Jacob said that the last known status of the investigation was the request for a coroner’s inquest to ascertain the cause of death of his son.
But the father questioned the reason for the request when the post-mortem examination had clearly revealed the cause of death. Jacob said that the autopsy revealed strangulation, asphyxiation, compounded by injuries to the neck and blunt trauma to the head as the causes of death. In addition, he said that he is in possession of a report detailing the injuries his son sustained.
The video footage collected from the airport appeared to be tampered with since the video had sections which were edited and cut out, Jacob stated. Afterward, a request was made for an additional copy of the video to be collected from the airport. Jacob said that the airport only stores footage for seven days and since the request was made after seven days had elapsed, the video could not be retrieved.
Jacob felt exhausted with attempts to meet with investigators so that the matter will not be forgotten and he has kept his silence on the matter for a while. However, he is again encouraged to pursue the matter with the hope of receiving justice.
He believes that there is glaring evidence which is before the police and he is planning to meet with Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan on the case.
He said also that there was an issue at the airport involving an amount of cash which was missing and his son was scheduled to testify in court in relation to the missing cash.
