In an unexpected twist, allegations have been made that last Sunday’s fire, which claimed the lives of a couple and destroyed their home at Hydronie, East Bank Essequibo, was not in fact accidental.
The charred remains of Haywattie ‘Hema’ Bahadur, 52, a teacher of Parika Salem Primary and her husband, Hansraj Narine, 57, a bus owner and driver, were pulled from the rubble following the fire, which started around 1:45 am on February 9.
Now, relatives from both sides are saying they believe that it was deliberately set, owing to longstanding domestic disputes. They are of the opinion that it was a case of a murder/suicide, but no one would know for sure who got murdered or what exactly transpired.
Anil Bahadur, the brother of Hema Bahadur had told Stabroek News: “We got a call this morning that there was a fire at Hema’s house, and when we arrived, the fire was already blazing. We broke the glass of the bus and pushed it out, but by then, the fire was already too big.”
Preliminary investigations conducted by the Guyana Fire Service identified the cause of the fire as a slack electrical connection, which resulted in arcing and sparking that ignited nearby combustible materials.
However, the following day, Anil said he did not think that was the case, pointing out “is an inside something, but we don’t want to jump on any limb and it’s wrong. So let it be just like that…”
Not wanting to go into too much detail, he added: “We understand what is it and we have to accept… Maybe we erred or she erred not to tell us what was going on. And that was the downfall. It coulda been better…”
Anil told this newspaper too that his sister was “afraid. She asked people certain things (to go to the station), but they tell she don’t do it because it would be worse, but I think it woulda be better. I think this was the worse, what happened here…”
Anil said too it was very hard for the family to come to grips with what happened, adding, “If you can’t make it, just move on. Leave it like that. You don’t look back, go forward.”
Narine’s family have not denied that the fire and deaths may have stemmed from domestic disputes, which escalated over the last three months.
Sharing their “side of the story,” one of Narine’s two daughters from a previous marriage, Gaitri Narine, said that there were always problems between the couple when her father “met his children and grandchildren.”
She said Bahadur never wanted him to be in contact with them and whenever she found out he was with them, she would “torment him….”
Another relative said Narine had reached “breaking point…” because of the way he was treated.
The results of a post-mortem examination proved that the couple burned to death.
