(Trinidad Guardian) After toiling all morning in his garden yesterday, a Tortuga farmer returned home and fell asleep.
Less than two hours later, the father of one, Ganesh Deopersad, 33, was murdered.
He was shot multiple times while he slept on his bed by intruders during a home invasion shortly before 1 pm.
When Guardian Media visited the home at Cocoyac Trace, relatives were under the house while Deopersad’s wife was alone at home with her husband at the time of the incident.
A police report said Deopersad’s wife was in the kitchen when a man entered through the front door and pushed her against the wall.
With a gun tucked into his waist, he threatened to shoot her if she screamed.
Two other suspects entered and began searching the bedrooms.
They entered Deopersad’s room and shot him.
His wife said she heard three or four loud explosions. The suspects then demanded that she give them the money from their market sales.
She told them there was no money, but they threatened to shoot her.
She then went into a room and took out US$3,730 and TT$1,000 from her purse and gave them.
As they were leaving the house, they took the DVR unit from the living room.
In an interview with Guardian Media, Deopersad’s cousin, Ousha Deopersad, said he was a qualified mechanical engineer, but chose to do gardening for a living.
She said he had returned home after harvesting his crops and was taking a nap. The couple’s four-year-old son was in school.
Ousha said, “He was taking a nap when this unfortunate scene played off. That would have been about half-12, minutes to one. I heard three or four men came into his house. They pushed his wife against the wall. They attempted to rob her. They asked for cash, jewellery. She had some costume jewellery on. They asked her whether it was gold or not. She said it was fake, so they left her. They fired about four, five shots, allegedly at my cousin.”
She did not know why anyone would want to target Deopersad or his family.
“He is a qualified mechanical engineer but he chose gardening due to love, his passion for it. I know him to be a very humble and nice person and most of the time what he does is just work. He spends almost the entire day doing his garden work. I don’t know him to be a bad person. He was a humble person, a very hard working person for his age,” she said.
Ousha said her cousin’s murder sent shockwaves through the community.
“It is actually the first time something like that has played off. Yes, we had many larceny taking place with the farmers, their crops recently, due to COVID and the crisis paw paw in the country, but it is the first time that a homicide, something like this happen,” she added.
She said Deopersad grew a range of crops and sold them at the Macoya Market. Deopersad and his wife were married for almost five years.
