Investigators are currently on the hunt for three men who are believed to have set alight two Enterprise, East Coast Demerara houses within hours on Friday; an act which is suspected to be linked to the April 27th  piracy attack off of Suriname.

A source close to the investigation related to the Sunday Stabroek that while efforts were being made up to late yesterday afternoon to locate the three suspects, one of the theories the police are presently pursuing is that the fires might be related to the piracy attack since at least one of the victims is a fisherman.

Around 7pm on Friday, three men arrived at Lot 450 Church Street, Enterprise and enquired about an individual by the name of ‘Pumpkin”.  The men then forcibly entered the house which was later discovered to be engulfed in fire.

The two-storey house is owned and occupied by 55-year-old Ramesh Putulall, his niece and her two daughters.

This newspaper was told that ‘Pumpkin’ is a male who reportedly shares a relationship with ‘Priya’.  While he also lived at the said house, he is said to be often times not at home.

When Stabroek News visited the scene yesterday, none of the occupants was present.

However, a relative of Putulall, who wished not to be named explained that ‘Priya’ and her children moved into the house about two months ago.

The man said during this period, Putulall made several complaints to him and other relatives expressing that he wanted them to remove but they never paid him any heed.

“He (Putulall) and them never get along. They use to get problem and when he told them to leave, they doesn’t want go”, the relative said. “He use to complain that he want them to move out of he place”, he added.

A neighbour said that at the time of the fire, the area had a power outage. The woman said she and her family were in their house when they noticed a bright light from their window.  “When we look out, there was the big fire but nobody couldn’t do anything because it did done spread”, she said.

She related that in a bid to avoid the fire from spreading to nearby houses, residents poured water onto the houses.

Earlier on Friday, it is suspected that the same men, turned up at a Forbes Street, Enterprise house and enquired about “Pumpkin”. After they were told by one of the occupants, that no one by that name lived at the location, they proceeded up the stairs and later set the house on fire also.

 

It remains unclear if the men might have gone to the wrong house in this instance and therefore later returned the said evening to the Church Street house.

Stabroek News had reported that the fire started around 11.30 am on Friday at the Lot 507 Forbes Street, Enterprise, ECD house which is owned by Anjanee Singh and her siblings.

This house was occupied by six persons including three children.

Rajpattie Madray, 37, lived alone in the lower flat while her brother, Vickram Sookraj, 30, a fisherman occupied the upper flat with his wife and three children ages; two, three and five weeks.

Reports had revealed that the three men turned up at the house in a car. Two of the men, exited the car and asked Madray for an individual by the name of `Pumpkin’.

Madray told them she didn’t know anyone by that name but they still proceeded up the stairs. When she attempted to follow them, the men prevented her and subsequently left after which she noticed the entire house was engulfed in fire.