A case file containing the details and purported evidence in the murder of West Berbice teenager Haresh Singh has been sent for advice by the Guyana Police Force to the Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum yesterday told Stabroek News that the police are currently awaiting advice before determining the way forward.
Last Wednesday police arrested three persons for questioning as the probe into the 2020 murder deepened and on Friday issued a wanted bulletin for Gladwin Henry, a brother of Joel Henry, one of the two cousins who were brutally murdered last September.
On Saturday, Gladwin Henry surrendered to the police in the company of his lawyer Nigel Hughes. A total of four persons remain in custody.
Just last month, Blanhum informed that ranks from the Unit and the Region Five Criminal Investigation Department (CID) were collaborating on the investigation.
Seventeen-year-old Singh, also known as ‘Raj’, of Lot 8, Number 3 Village, West Coast Berbice was found with head injuries and chop wounds along the No. 2 Village backdam on September 9, 2020.
Singh left home on his motorcycle to tend to his farm in the backdam of No. 3 Village. Sometime after, his relatives saw smoke rising from the backdam and left to investigate. They discovered the body of Singh lying motionless. His nose was bleeding. His motorcycle had also been burnt.
An autopsy later concluded that he died as a result of brain haemorrhaging and blunt trauma to the head, compounded by compression injuries to his neck.
Singh was murdered days after teenage cousins Joel and Isaiah Henry were slain. Singh’s murder was believed to be a reprisal killing as several of his relatives had been initially held in connection with the murder of the cousins.
During the initial investigations into Singh’s murder, a number of persons were detained for questioning. However no charge was laid.
Blanhum had previously told Stabroek News that “all of the police efforts and resources will be dedicated to bring the matter to finality.”
Over the past few months, relatives of Singh staged a number of protests calling for justice. They said that they were tired of waiting on the police to make a breakthrough in the case. The latest protest was held outside of the Office of the President.
The relatives had said that they were beginning to think that the matter had been forgotten. “It looks like the police give up, but we the family we will not give up. We need justice for Haresh,” a relative, who wished not to be named, had said.
