Police neglect their duties, maybe this is why crime continues unabated. Under the PPP the did the same thing, now under PNC, police continue to be belligerent and prefer to lime rather than investigate crime.
“Police didn’t help us find my son…they refused to help search”
Shocked family: (From left) Razack Ghanie, brother; father, Fazil Ghanie, and mother, Indranie Seenarine
The parents, siblings and other relatives of 21-year-old murdered blockmaker, Mahendra Ghanie whose burnt remains were unearthed in a shallow grave located aback of his employer’s house at the Number 55 Cemetery, are incensed at the actions of the ranks attached to the Whim and Number 55 Police Stations.
The relatives are claiming that ranks attached to both stations were very reluctant in joining with them to search for their now dead loved one. The dead man’s mother, Indranie Seenarine, explained that after her son went missing last Monday (October 2), they decided to make a missing person report two days later (October 4) at the Number 51 Police Station.
“They told me to go home, they will call… they never called. The same evening, I went to Whim (Police Station) instead, but when I go they send me back to 51 Station. When I go there, they tell me they can’t take the report because the man nah belong to 51, he belong to Bloomfield. So I ask the officer why you pushing me around so? And they didn’t answer”.
The woman stated that on Thursday last, she and her eldest son decided to visit her son’s employer, well known as ‘Bobby’. She said when she arrived she saw ‘Bobby’ and asked him about her son’s whereabouts and he replied “I don’t know”. The woman said they left and returned to Whim, but were again denied, and told to make the report at Central Police Station in New Amsterdam. They were however sent back to Whim Police Station.
She said it was not until 16:00 hrs on Thursday that a police rank, in the company of Seenarine, ventured to the employer’s property. “Dem go and hold ‘Bobby’. Dem ent search or nothing,” Razack Ghanie, the dead man’s sibling, told Kaieteur News.
He claimed that a female rank, while placing the accused under arrest told him “don’t worry you is a good man, morning yuh gon get loose and yuh gon go and look after yuh stock”. There was still no search initiated by ranks up until that time, relatives claim.
With another day added to the timeline, since Mahendra Ghanie went missing, the young man’s siblings and other relatives launched a search, but opted to visit the 51 Police Station to request a rank to join the search party. They were allegedly refused assistance. “They told me to go and search,” Razack Ghanie said.
He stated that he returned to the ‘cemetery house’ but saw “…Bobby son running, so I go back to the station again, and while I was waiting, I see the son come and making report that I went and run him with cutlass, but that is when the police arrested he. After that I ask if I can go back and deh seh yes. Is when I go back and search, is then I find the grave with the bones and call the police”.
Murdered: Mahendra Ghanie
The Police, he said, arrived an hour and a half later. He stated that when they arrived, he continued digging on his own, while the ranks watched on. “I find another bone and one of the Police (name provided) seh, “boy you is a idiot, that is a piece of wood”, when I dig more I find pieces of me brother phone and then dem call more police and then dem come and search for more”. The man’s mother also claimed that a policeman said to her, “Why you crying, yuh think yuh son so good?”
The relatives disclosed that they are not pleased with the manner in which ranks treated their case and are asking for justice to be served for the abhorrent death of their relative, “he did not deserve to go like that”, the grieving mother muttered.
The main suspect, his son and a worker were all arrested and have since confessed to the brutal murder of the 21-year-old.
They reportedly told investigators that they clubbed Ghanie with a piece of wood on his head, rendering him unconscious, then dragged his body aback the house – some 200 yards away – located in the Number 55 Cemetery, and dumped his body in an already dug shallow grave.
They then set the corpse alight. Upon returning the next day, the corpse was not completely burnt, so they burnt the remains a short distance away.