The police in Berbice have launched an investigation into an attempt to burn the house of one of the Alliance For Change (AFC) candidates for the Whim/ Bloomfield Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) at the upcoming local government elections and a rival PPP/C candidate has been arrested after reports that he threatened her.
Around midnight on Wednesday, investigators arrested Safraz Beekham, who is on the PPP/C’s list as a candidate for the NDC. Beekham was released on his own recognisance around minutes to 6 pm yesterday. Beekham, who strongly denied the allegations leveled against him, was asked to return to the Whim Police Station on Monday.
Rashree Permaul, 35, of Bloomfield Village, Corentyne, told Stabroek News that around 9.45 pm on Wednesday she was in the lower flat of her house when she started to smell what she thought was “cigarette smoke.”
“I just sit down. I take it for nothing,” she said.
However, the woman then saw flames emanating from outside of her kitchen. “I rushed upstairs to wake my older daughter… and when I went upstairs me and her on the eastern side, right where the fire is, we tried to peep through a window to see how bad the fire is,” she recounted.
She said she immediately phoned relatives along with Mavis Nagamootoo and informed them of the situation. “After they came, we went outside and then… It’s three post on the side, two wooden one and the concrete one where the fire lit but the two wooden post right through it was soaked with kerosene oil,” she added.
According to Permaul, the fire went out by itself before they ventured outside. “We tried to wash it off, the wall and two posts, in case we go back to sleep and the person come back and light it up,” she said.
The woman said later in the night the Officer-in-Charge of the Whim Police Station, Boodnarine Persaud, along with other ranks visited her. “They went in the back and they find the kerosene and the back gate open and stuff,” she noted.
‘No suspect’
Meanwhile, despite Beekham’s arrest, Permaul stated that she does not suspect anyone and suggested that he was only held because of the allegations she has made that he threatened her.
According to the woman, on Wednesday afternoon a relative of Beekham verbally abused her. “It’s all because of this campaign thing and so going on. It’s all because something coming from that side with those people,” she alleged.
The woman further alleged that on September 20th, Beekham called her phone and threatened her, which she reported to the Whim Police Station.
Additionally, the woman, who noted that she is very fearful for her life, said that some three weeks ago a female phoned her children and threatened to harm their mother. “This is how they arrest him because of all the threatening language and all of that. It’s not that I see him, that yes he came to my house and burn it, [and] set the fire. No,” she explained.
Meanwhile, the AFC, in a press statement yesterday morning, said that it was alarmed and horrified by the reports of the arson attempt.
“The AFC views this as a terror attack both on Ms. Permaul and the lives of her children and father and her home. This act is consistent with the old political tactics of fear which is resorted to by certain political entities,” the statement said.
“The AFC is relieved that Ms. Permaul and her family members are safe and condemns this ghastly attempt to destroy her property and threaten her life and the lives of her family,” the party added, while calling on the Guyana Police Force and the Guyana Fire Service to fully investigate the act and apprehend the arsonist(s).
‘Quite unnatural’
Zamal Hussain, PPP Party Supervisor, was present yesterday at the Whim Police Station with relatives of Beekham awaiting word from investigators on the way forward. Beekham is claiming that he was home from 7.30 pm until the police arrested him.
Hussain told Stabroek News that Beekham was arrested around midnight on Wednesday. “They promised to do an investigation with a confrontation with the person who is making the allegations. I was made to understand that the persons didn’t show up here. I was made to understand that the Officer-in-Charge, Mr. Persaud, promised the lawyers that at 2 pm today that the guy, Safraz Beekham, would be released as long as there is not evidence to implicate him in the incident that was alleged against him,” he noted.
Around 4 pm yesterday, Hussain accused the police of dragging their feet on the issue, as he stated, that he was told that Persaud was awaiting instructions from the Commander and Georgetown. He called it “quite unnatural” and asserted that the Officer-in-Charge of the Whim Police Station, based on the investigation, should have made the decision, after which he could have communicated to the Commissioner of Police.
Hussain further alleged that there is some amount of “political instruction,” which he suggested could be coming from Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan, who is also the AFC Chairman.
Additionally, Hussain claimed that a few weeks ago on an AFC television programme in Berbice, Ramjattan publicly made a threat against Beekham.
Justice Navindra Singh late last month dismissed a court action filed by Beekham, who had sought to void the listing of 50 names, including his, as official nominators of rival AFC candidates for the NDC.
Based on a police report presented to him, Justice Singh ruled at the High Court in Berbice that the allegation that the AFC fraudulently procured the names of residents listed as backers of its candidates could not have been established.
However, Beekham’s attorneys, Anil Nandlall and Adrian Anamayah have since appealed the ruling, while claiming that the police report was doctored.
Hussain yesterday suggested that because the matter is being appealed, persons are targeting Beekham “because they know that if they get at him the case will be cancelled at some point in time.”
Hussain said his party is hoping that the matter will be investigated in a very fair manner.
