As investigators in Berbice continue to grill the accused in the murder of Canadian citizen Nicholas Ramkissoon Jaipaul, the prime suspect has reportedly claimed that his brother helped him to burn the youth’s corpse to get rid of the remains.
This was confirmed by a police source to Sunday Stabroek yesterday.
The two brothers, who are the son of a maid employed with Jaipaul’s grandfather, were arrested after one was spotted at Jaipaul’s residence mere hours before he disappeared last Sunday evening.
On Thursday, the suspected remains of Jaipaul were discovered in some bushes along the main access road at Molsen Creek.
Police have received a statement from the prime suspect, who alleges that he was hired by a rice farmer to kidnap Jaipaul and kill him and then call his grandfather for a ransom of $50 million.
He told investigators that he was ordered to kill the grandfather when he showed up with the ransom and that he would be paid $500,000. The rice farmer, who is the alleged mastermind, is in custody.
According to a senior police source, one of the brothers now in custody visited Jaipaul last Sunday afternoon to obtain some soursop leaves.
Police had initially held one of the brothers for basic questioning but it was after they discovered the men’s history that they took a closer look at them.
The source confirmed to Stabroek News that the prime suspect was arrested for the murder of his stepfather back in 2014.
The stepfather was reportedly chopped and stabbed several times about his body, after which he was thrown in a nearby pond that was said to be infested with alligators. The prime suspect and his mother, the maid, were arrested then, while the other brother went into hiding.
The suspect was eventually charged in 2014 but later freed in 2016 after a no-case submission was accepted at the High Court in Berbice.
Jaipaul, 23, arrived in Guyana back in January with his grandfather, Ramkissoon Jaipaul, 86. The duo were residing at the grandfather’s house in Number 69 Village, Corentyne, and were expected to leave the country in May. They were forced to remain in the country due to travel restrictions instituted as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The grandfather had said that he left the youth awake and went to bed last Sunday around 7.30 pm.
However, Monday morning he received a strange call asking if he was aware that his grandson was not in the house, which led him to file a police report.
He noted, that he was never asked for any ransom but he had suspected that that was the reason behind the call.
