Just over six years since her disappearance, the remains of Babita Sarjou were finally laid to rest yesterday at the Kuru Kururu Cemetery.
Sarjou’s skeletal remains, which were unearthed in a shallow grave at the residence of her estranged husband in Campbellville some six months ago, were interred at the cemetery after a Hindu funeral.
Members of her family, although mourning, breathed a sigh of relief at the confirmation that the remains were hers.
An aunt said that for the past six years they wondered. “We search all over, in the river, everything we see floating in a corner we would go and check thinking it was her,” she said. “Even when they find her body, we were still not certain if it was her. Now we have the results and it is 100 percent. We know it is her and she can finally rest,” the aunt lamented.
Last Friday, police received the results from DNA tests, which confirmed that the remains found were indeed those of Sarjou, who had been missing and was presumed dead.
On the eve of Diwali, in November of 2010, the then 28-year-old Sarjou had left her Timehri home to view the annual Diwali motorcade with her estranged husband, Anand Narine, and their four-year-old son. She had promised she would be back home at around 9 that night but relatives never saw or heard from her again. Narine and another man are currently charged with murdering Sarjou.
At the Timehri home of Sarjou’s mother, sympathisers from the community, family, friends and members of the Caribbean American Domestic Vio-lence Awareness (CADVA) group paid their final respects.
In tears, Sarjou’s mother, Champa Seenarine, said she waited six years to find her daughter. She noted that if she had let fear have the best of her, she would still be searching her daughter. “If I was afraid, I wouldn’t ah get justice,” a mourning Seenarine said.
The mother also called on women who are victims of abuse to find the courage to escape from the relationship. “Today I am a grieving mother. Women should be able to live, they should not be abused,” Seenarine said as she fought back tears.
Meanwhile, Dianne Madray, Director of CADVA, which has been working closely with Sarjou’s family to ensure justice is served, said while they have been able to bring a conclusion to the matter, it remains a sad day as Sarjou’s son could not have made it to his mother’s funeral. He was not permitted to attend the funeral by his paternal grandmother.
She pointed out that her organisation has been working to foster relationships between families and children of victims of abuse. “In this case, the families are not the ones responsible for what has happened between the couple. We are working to help create some peace. Families need to stop blaming each other and look forward to the future of the child or children,” she added.
Losing both parents by death or by incarceration is never easy, Madray pointed out, while noting that her organisation would soon approach the Child Care and Welfare departments and Ministry of Social Protection to develop a programme to help bring families together in order for the children to have a functioning childhood.
A preliminary inquiry into the murder charge against Narine and co-accused Darrol Compton, called ‘Yankee,’ is ongoing.
Narine had faced intense scrutiny after her disappearance as there was a history of domestic violence in their relationship. He was previously charged with harassment after allegedly exposing pictures of a half-naked Sarjou to the public. The photographs had been displayed around her place of employment on August 31, 2010. He was freed of this charge a year later after Sarjou, who was the main witness, had disappeared.
