A 23-year-old woman of De Willem, West Coast Demerara who is pregnant with her fourth child is fearful about the condition of her unborn baby after she was badly beaten by nearby residents.
Anuradha Ephlall was in her yard around 4:30 pm on Saturday when three women rushed in and gave her a sound beating.
The woman who is six weeks pregnant said she bled continuously that night and all day Sunday but luckily when she visited the doctor she learnt that she had not lost the baby.
She was still afraid that something would be wrong with the baby. An ultrasound confirmed that the baby was fine but the doctor advised her to return in about four weeks for a follow-up.
Ephlall told Stabroek News that the residents would constantly “curse me and meh husband and threaten to beat me.”
On Saturday they could no longer take the abuse and her husband, Rabindra Sukhlall went to the Leonora Police Station and made a report.
A policeman accompanied him home and went across to the residents to warn them. Just after her husband walked out on the long road with the policeman, the women rushed over.
He received a message from someone that “big fight deh at the back there.” But by the time he got home, they had already beaten his wife and she was “rolling in pain.”
Ephlall recalled that she was about to enter the outdoor washroom when one of the women grabbed her hair. They fell to the ground and the women started kicking and cuffing her.
This newspaper saw a video of the attack and could hear the women using expletives and others encouraging them to “give her more.”
The video ended abruptly when one of the women started cursing and threatening Ephlall’s male cousin who was recording it.
She said one of the women “choke meh neck and meh asthma raise. When she realize that meh pant fuh breath then she loose me.”
But they only left the yard when an elderly woman came and told them that they “would get in trouble.”
Since the incident they have moved to Sukhlall’s mother’s house at Meten-Meer-Zorg and were afraid to return home.
Meanwhile, she said they live in the squatting area and do not get potable water in their yard.
They would have to walk on the ‘dam’ and go to a relative’s house but the women have blocked the dam, denying them access. If they happened to pass, one of the women would “lock off the valve so we can’t get water.”
