The two policemen who were placed under close arrest for allegedly torturing seventeen-year-old Akshay Budhairam remain in police custody, according to Commander of Region Three Assistant Commissioner Simon McBean, who said that no other suspect is being sought.
McBean told Stabroek News that while it has been reported that other parties were present at the time of the attack, there has been no report of them participating in the attack.
He also stated that the evidence gathered so far does not point to any other individual being involved.
Budhairam has said he was abducted by a group of eight men, who were travelling in two cars, and was transported to the home of the lawmen, who handcuffed him and beat him, while continuously asking for a phone and game he has been accused of stealing from their La Parfaite Harmonie, West Bank Demerara home. He was also burnt by his assailants. “Them carry me in a house, put me in a room, handcuff me to a bedframe and start beating me. Them keep asking me weh them thing deh. I tell them me ain’t know about nothing. Them go and hot water in a electric kettle, a black kettle and they start throwing it pun me head. I feel it start running down pun me back and it start paining….I start hollering…them cuffing me all in me ribs, lashing me all with a baseball bat,” the teen related.
The teen, who has denied any involvement in breaking into their property, has said he believes his attackers wanted him dead as they had placed him in the trunk of a car and proceeded to take him to a housing scheme. “I feel they did want kill me because me ain’t know wah they carry me till ah the back suh fah plus them beating me with a shovel…All me teeth all them bruk,” he told this newspaper on Wednesday.
He managed to escape and contact his family.
He was adamant that he had no knowledge of the allegation that is being levelled against him. “…If I did do duh when them throw the hot wata pun me, I woulda talk everything but me ain’t know wah them talking about.”
The case was made public on Tuesday during an emergency press conference, which was hosted by Commissioner of Police Leslie James, who announced that an investigation has been launched and that it is being spearheaded by a senior member of the force.
He had said that the two lawmen, who are brothers and are the sons of a senior member of the force, were placed under close arrest.
The ranks are stationed at the Tactical Services Unit and at the Wales Police Station.
James had explained that based on reports, the ranks allegedly picked up the teen around 11.30 am on Monday from his Westminster, WBD home in a private car, which was occupied by other individuals.
They took him to their house, where they allegedly beat and burnt the teen with a liquid, suspected to be hot water.
“The allegation is that sometime between the hours of 11.30, he [the teen] was picked up by these two ranks, who allegedly were with other persons, and taken to a dwelling in the Parfaite Harmonie area. I think the dwelling is their residence,” James had said.
“The background to that is that the dwelling was broken into sometime prior and it was felt that the young man was a suspect. The allegation is that that ranks proceeded to inflict injuries on him that is, he was beaten and he was also burnt about his body by some liquid—I suspect it might have been water; hot water,” he had added.
