Tavita Natasha Lall yesterday succumbed at the Georgetown Public Hospital some five weeks after she was allegedly set alight by her husband at their Number 64 Village, Corentyne house.
The critically injured woman had pleaded with her mother to take care of her (Natasha’s) minor daughter after which she lost consciousness and then eventually succumbed.
Lall’s mother, Bamela Lall, 60, yesterday told Stabroek News that the woman died just around 6.30 am yesterday. According to the mother, her daughter, who was in a critical state, spoke to her on Wednesday after which she slipped back into an unconscious state.
The devastated woman recalled that on Wednesday, Natasha asked her whether she loved her and after she (Bamela) replied that she did, Natasha pleaded with her to look after her young daughter as she told the woman that she “won’t make it.”
According to Lall, her daughter’s condition was deteriorating slowly but she still “put up a fight.” Natasha sustained major burn injuries on the lower part of her body and underwent several surgeries while a patient in the Intensive Care Unit.
On Friday, January 14, around 10 pm, Natasha was at home cooking when her husband, Dipnarine Seelall also known as ‘Narei’, 50, returned home from imbibing. After the two were involved in a heated argument, Seelall allegedly set the woman on fire with a jar of kerosene after which he locked the door and left her to burn inside.
The woman’s mother had previously explained that she was awakened with news that her daughter had been attacked by the man. She said she looked back to where the couple’s house was and all she saw was Natasha’s daughter screaming for help and then collapsing. “Me run go over and he lock she inside and sit on the veranda and them neighbour, neighbour had to come out and kick down the door and out the fire and then we carry she hospital.”
Natasha was rushed to the Skeldon Hospital from where she was immediately transferred to the New Amsterdam Public Hospital and then the Georgetown Public Hospital that same evening.
Seelall is currently on remand for attempted murder. Relatives had said that Seelall turns into a different person whenever he imbibes and would often abuse Natasha while in a drunken state.
Her mother had informed that Natasha, a mother of four, and Seelall started a relationship about two years ago, and moved in together a couple of houses away from her in Number 64 Village, Corentyne. The devastated woman had disclosed that the man would normally abuse Natasha and accuse her of cheating whenever he imbibed and even left her hospitalised in one instance several months before the incident.
However, despite her pleas, Natasha always returned to live with the man, but on the day in question Natasha decided that she would “stand up to him” and end the relationship – that was the day she would end up in the hospital.
Natasha earlier in the day had told her mother that throughout their relationship, whatever Seelall accused her of she always had to accept and remain quiet, but on that day she would stand up to him and clear her name as his claims were all untruths.
