-in false murder probe
Police reportedly investigating a murder that had not occurred “broke” into a Tain, Corentyne home, one of its occupants said, and took a pregnant woman into custody when they did not find the “suspect” they were seeking.

Shane ‘Anil’ Kandhai, 33, told Stabroek News yesterday that police “broke” into his house on Wednesday morning to arrest him over the alleged murder of his “wife” and took his pregnant girlfriend into custody instead as he was not around. The pregnant woman spent the night at the Whim Police Station lock-ups and up to yesterday she had not been released.

Kandhai said the woman who the police said he had murdered is the mother of his two children and she is alive and well at Rose Hall. He said he felt “violated” and wondered where the police received such information.

He said he was told that the policemen, who were dressed in “red t-shirts and carrying guns” knocked on his door without identifying themselves and not sure who they were, his terrified girlfriend refused to let them in.

According to him, after a while they broke open the back door with “chisel and hammer” and took his girlfriend away because they could not locate him.
When Stabroek News visited the Tain area yesterday where the incident reportedly took place, neighbours were tight-lipped. The gate to the house was locked and it was not possible to see the door at the back that the police was said to have broken.
Meanwhile, some members of the media in Berbice had received word of a murder on the Corentyne and were heading there yesterday morning only to be told that it was not true.

Kandhai said no one was available to take food to the police station for his girlfriend and he was fearful that she might suffer a miscarriage. He said when he called the station yesterday to find out why she was being held an officer told him, “if you want to know you have to come…”
However, even though the mother of his children, who he supposedly murdered, is alive and well he refused to go to station for fear of being locked-up as well.

Kandhai who has since moved out of his house said he received a call from relatives at Tain, who told him that a close associate of a senior officer had entered his house and removed articles in a bag.
Contacted yesterday senior police officers in Berbice admitted that the woman was placed in the lock-ups but denied breaking open the door to enter the house.

The officers said she was needed for questioning and would be released after they were “through with her.” They said they are not aware that the woman is pregnant.

With regard to the allegation about someone removing articles from Kandhai’s home, the officers said, “the woman is in the lock-ups not him so he should stay and protect his house.”

Further, they said if he had such complaints to make he should go to the station. They said too that he is currently “a fugitive” and “once he keeps hiding we would continue searching for him”.

Asked whether the man was wanted for other offences, the officers said they had to investigate the report of the murder even though it was not true.