Another member of blood-drenched Trinidad family murdered

Naresh Basant
Naresh Basant

(Trinidad Guardian) Naresh “Ve­nesh” Bas­ant, 40, of Char­lieville was lured to his death un­der the pre­tence that some­one need­ed him to do a job es­ti­mate for a roof at Ko­rea Vil­lage in Cara­pichaima.

More than a week ago, Bas­ant be­gan to get calls on his cell­phone. The fe­male voice kept ask­ing him if he can do a roof­ing job for her.

 
But when Bas­ant did man­age to find the time and go to the site at Jag­bir Street he was in­stead gunned down. He was shot 12 times about the body be­lieved to be by a high-pow­ered ri­fle short­ly af­ter 6 pm on Mon­day.

Killed: Naresh Basant

Ac­cord­ing to a po­lice re­port, sev­er­al gun­shots were heard and Bas­ant’s body was found ly­ing on the road­way next to his Hon­da Civic mo­tor­car.

He was a pro­fes­sion­al and cer­ti­fied welder and the fa­ther of a 12-year-old boy.

Guardian Me­dia was told that res­i­dents ob­served a white Ti­i­da “cir­cling” the area be­fore Bas­ant’s ar­rival.

How­ev­er, when Bas­ant ar­rived he was told that no one called about a roof­ing job.

One rel­a­tive, who wished not to be iden­ti­fied, re­lat­ed what he was told by eye­wit­ness­es, “He came out of his car with his job book in his hand and like when he was told that no one there had a job for him he walked back to his car and rest his book on it. The white Ti­i­da then stopped and like when he saw the gun point­ed at him he thought it was a rob­bery. So he pulled the chain from around his neck and held it in his hands but they just shoot him up and drove off tak­ing noth­ing. Po­lice got the chain still clenched in his hand and they al­so re­trieved his wal­let which had just over $200.”

“So clear­ly he was set up…but why? Ve­nesh was nev­er in any­thing. He was nev­er in­to drugs, guns or gangs. He worked re­al­ly hard to build his house for years and to see about his on­ly child, his son, who was every­thing to him, ” the rel­a­tive said.

Bas­ant’s wife, Shal­i­ma Bas­ant said she last saw her hus­band at about 1.30 pm that same day (Mon­day), “We had lunch home and I left home about 1.30 pm and that was the last time I saw him. All I know was that he went to check a job in Ko­rea Vil­lage.”

Shal­i­ma said they had din­ner plans and tried call­ing him the evening but got no an­swer, “I found it strange be­cause what­ev­er hap­pens be­tween us he would al­ways take my call. Is af­ter a while a neigh­bour saw it on Face­book that there was a mur­der in Ko­rea Vil­lage and I know he went there so that’s how we found out.”

An in­ves­ti­gat­ing po­lice source said that whilst they have no mo­tive they be­lieve that Bas­ant may have been lured to his death by some­one close to him, “Some­one who knew or was privy to his per­son­al busi­ness like what jobs he had and where and where oth­er po­ten­tial jobs were. So the mas­ter­mind knew these fine de­tails and was able to put him in place as they would say.”

The po­lice source al­so dis­closed that they re­ceived in­for­ma­tion that Bas­ant had an es­tranged re­la­tion­ship at one time with a close fe­male rel­a­tive who had “ties” in Ko­rea Vil­lage some years ago. In­ves­ti­ga­tors are not rul­ing out the pos­si­bil­i­ty that the “hit” was called on Bas­ant based on the lat­est in­for­ma­tion re­ceived.

Rachael Sukhdeo

An­oth­er po­lice source con­firmed that Bas­ant’s mur­der had noth­ing to do with the mur­der of Sheron Sukhdeo nei­ther his broth­er-in-law Phillip Bas­ant.

Phillip’s sis­ter, Sheron’s wid­ow, Rachel Sukhdeo al­so took to so­cial me­dia to clear up is­sues in­clud­ing the fact that Bas­ant is not her cousin. Sukhdeo wrote: “I will like to ex­press my con­do­lences to the fam­i­ly of Naresh Bas­ant on their loss. I un­der­stand what you are go­ing through at this time.

I will like to how­ev­er ex­press my dis­gust at the me­dia for print­ing er­ro­neous links, for the mil­lionth time, be­fore con­firm­ing the truth­ful­ness of the in­for­ma­tion. The de­ceased is not my cousin.”

Bas­ant’s rel­a­tives said they are still in shock and “very con­fused.”

Bas­ant was known as a very hard work­er and who dear­ly loved his one and on­ly son and made it his du­ty to see that his son was hap­py and well tak­en care of.

“Ve­nesh was his home name and every­one called him by that…he was a very qui­et guy but when with his fam­i­ly he loved to give jokes and smile at every­thing. He was no limer but fre­quent­ed a bar near his home on week­ends where he would on­ly lime with fam­i­ly and close friends, ” a rel­a­tive said.

“We are left now with a deep void and many unan­swered ques­tions. We are in dis­be­lief but who­ev­er did this I want them to know that they took away a good fa­ther away from an on­ly child…they took away a good man who worked hard and hon­est for his liv­ing. God will give us jus­tice, ” the rel­a­tive added.