As the police probe into the murder of 46-year-old Prietam Manickram, the alcoholic who was found dead in an abandoned house at Enterprise, East Coast Demerara last week continues, a male individual who is deemed a ‘person of interest’ in the matter has been detained.
Stabroek News was reliably informed that the man who was arrested on Sunday is being questioned in relation to the crime.
The two other suspects who were arrested on separate occasions last week have since been released from custody.
The first suspect was arrested last Wednesday while the other was detained sometime between Thursday and Friday.
The lifeless body of Manickram, called “Vishnu” and “Shahrukh,” a father of three, was discovered by a relative who went to check on him around 1.40 am last Monday.
At the time, he was lying in the bottom flat of the abandoned house. There were no visible marks of violence but an autopsy revealed that Manickram died as a result of manual strangulation.
Balram Manickram, the dead man’s son, had previously related to this newspaper that he last saw him alive on New Year’s Day and everything was normal.
Balram said that his father shared the abandoned house with two other men, whom he described as drug addicts.
“Is like a crew. The three ah them. The two ah them does come in the night but he (Prietam) does deh down deh whole day….it gah one in the crew is a bully, a lil tough up one. Several time when we go he does tell we that this guy does beat he like when he gah stuff and thing and tek it way and suh,” he had related.
He said while it remains unclear what led to his father’s death, the family suspects that Prietam and someone might have been involved in an argument, which escalated and he was strangled.
Balram had explained that Prietam became an alcoholic several years ago following his separation from his wife. Since then, Prietam has been occupying the abandoned house.
Balram said that on several occasions he and his siblings tried to get Prietam to return home. He said at one point, his eldest sister even took Prietam to Linden but he fought to return. Despite his choice, he said, they still kept checking on him.
