Four more persons are now in custody over the alleged home invasion which ended with the murder of Bath Settlement businessman, Mohamed Haniff, bringing the total number of persons detained to five.
Haniff, also known as ‘Raymond’, 47, of Lot 56 Experiment, Bath Settlement, West Coast Berbice, was reportedly beaten with an iron bar and chopped multiple times in his head with a cutlass on Friday evening.
He was rushed to the Fort Wellington Hospital after which he was transferred to the New Amsterdam Public Hospital where he died around 1.30 am on Saturday.
His wife, 44, was first arrested on Saturday morning after investigators noticed contradictions in the statement which she provided.
A senior police source yesterday said that they have arrested four more persons, three of whom are suspected to have committed the act.
According to the source, the four suspects are also from the West Coast of Berbice.
Haniff, who was working on the Caribbean island of St Martin with a relative in the air- conditioning business, returned just seven days ago to Guyana. Stabroek News was previously told that the man returned with US$8,000 which he hid after he had noticed some men acting suspiciously in front of his house.
The couple’s daughter, Bibi Zarifa Haniff, 25, who resides next to her parents told Stabroek News on Saturday “I heard noise coming from them house and then I heard noise on the dam”.
However, she said, it was not until later she was informed that bandits had allegedly pounced on her father.
“My mother tell me how she did waiting for my brother to come from work so she didn’t bolt the door, she just push it in and they went upstairs when the three bandits come in”.
Police had said the attackers were each armed with a small hand gun, an iron bar and cutlass.
The daughter said, “She (her mother) said how them had she flat on the floor with an iron and when she speaking the person telling her to shut up”.
Residents in the area had said that it was only after Haniff’s son, 16, returned from work that the man was rushed to the hospital after the son noticed his injuries. A neighbour reportedly offered assistance to take the injured man to the hospital.
The daughter said that about two years ago her father operated a shop at their premises but then left the country to work and support their family.
She said he was planning to return in March but because of the restrictions on flights due to Covid-19 he was only able to return to Guyana one week ago.
