The Guyana Police Force is probing an insurance angle in the fiery killing of Hope, West Berbice woman Anita Baichan on Sunday and one of her female relatives is to be taken into custody today.
Six other suspects remain in detention.
Stabroek News was informed by a source close to the investigations yesterday that the day after the death, the relative and one of the suspects visited the insurance company where Baichan’s life is insured to enquire about the money from the policy.
One of the suspects held is Antonio Singh Balrup, a former police officer who had been charged along with another person for the murder of Patricia Samaroo in March, 2014. Samaroo was shot to her head at Fyrish, Corentyne, Berbice when two men barged into her home. Her sister, Annetta Samaroo was also shot to the abdomen but survived. The murder charge against Balrup was later discharged.
Stabroek News was told that both Baichan and the relative’s lives were insured and the relative was interested in accessing the life insurance money. Baichan, 49, burned to death in her home early Sunday morning in a fire set by the two bandits who brutalised her and her son, Moshim Khan. Before escaping, the men bound and gagged the duo and set the house on fire. Khan was able to free himself but he was unable to save his mother.
In a statement, police had said that the men, who were masked and armed with cutlasses, entered the home and held up Baichan and Khan and they demanded cash and jewellery.
“The perpetrators were given $30,000 but kept demanding more valuables. Having not received anything further from the victims the men used duct tape to tie the hands, feet and mouth of the victims and set the house on fire before escaping,” it added.
“We beg and beg. We beg for them to stop but they continue to beat us and demand for more cash and jewellery and we seh we ain’t got none, we poor but they ain’t listen and they just continue beating us,” Khan had told this newspaper.
Khan said they gave the men some cash that was in the wardrobe but they demanded more. When the mother and son were unable to meet their demand, the bandits began to search and they would deal blows to the two for any money or jewellery they found.
After the men lit the house on fire, Khan rolled down a flight of stairs to the lower flat and it was there that he lost track of his mother. After he reached the bottom of the stairs, he added, he ran towards the corner of the wall and grazed his bound hands in a bid to remove the duct tape. After he was able to free his hands and feet, he said he rushed to the kitchen, where the fire had started, to remove the gas bottle to prevent any explosion.
Khan, however, then realised he had not seen his mother downstairs with him. He said that after he noticed she had not followed, he rushed to the stairs only to be greeted by intense flames engulfing the staircase.
Khan was unable to run back up the stairs to try to rescue his mother and started screaming for help.
