A Crabwood Creek man has been detained by the police after fire gutted his two-storey home on Wednesday, an incident which rendered his wife, whom he reportedly abused, temporarily speechless.
Stabroek News was told that at around 6:10pm on Wednesday, neighbours witnessed smoke emanating from the Lot 146 Grant 2767, Crabwood Creek house owned by Sookraj Seepaul. An alarm was raised and the fire service summoned.
According to neighbours, they saw Seepaul, 55, at home a short while before smoke started to emanate from the first bedroom in the upper flat of the house. His daughter Priya Seepaul, 29, told Stabroek News that she lives a few villages away but when she got the message, she rushed to her parents’ house immediately.
The woman said that neither of her parents was home at the time. She also disclosed that her parents would argue on a regular basis for different reasons. One neighbour related that on Thursday night, the couple had an argument, during which Seepaul threatened to hit his wife with a “door bar” but she hid in a room until he left and then escaped to her son’s residence.
The neighbour related that after the encounter, Seepaul started to consume alcohol. “He started to drink and threaten that he gone burn she,” one said. The neighbour, who asked to remain anonymous, related that on Thursday, Seepaul took “all the sofa, sponge, TV, music set and all she clothes wah she come with from outside, he burn them on the road.”
“When he son-in-law come and try to go help, he run him …,” she added. Neighbours also related that after Seepaul’s wife was informed of the fire, she passed out. “She made one scream and fainted and we took her to the doctor, but she na talk back a word until now,” one related.
Priya revealed that Seepaul was a cane harvester while his wife is a vendor at the Skeldon market. It was evident that the two-storey, part wood, part concrete house, was recently renovated.
During the fire, neighbours had started a bucket brigade and soaked the house next door in an effort to prevent the fire from spreading.
