-was beaten, burnt
Almost two days after he was battered, burnt and left with his hands and feet bound in his East Canje home, a 78-year-old man succumbed to his wounds.
Vishnu Persaud
Vishnu Persaud of Number Two Village, East Canje Berbice, a pensioner and farmer, was discovered around 10 am on Saturday in his home “with his hands and feet tied and a cloth tied over his mouth,” police said in release yesterday.
He was taken to the New Amsterdam Hospital that morning, police reported, but died around 2 pm on Sunday. A post-mortem examination, conducted by Dr Vivekanand Brijmohan, has since given the cause of death as “cerebral haemorrhage and blunt trauma.”
Persaud lived alone. His wife passed away five years ago and his two sons live abroad.
Chandra Devi Ramkissoon, who lives across the road from the deceased, told Stabroek News last evening that she cooked for Persaud. She last saw Persaud some time around 6.30 pm on Friday. She surmised that he would have been attacked some time on Friday night or early Saturday morning. “I know Uncle Vishnu went to a jandi [Hindu religious function] on Friday. He come by me about 5 pm and left and went to Cumberland to look for some gutter for his house,” Ramkissoon recalled. “He came back to my house again about 6.30 that afternoon and I give him his food and he left and go home.”
Persaud, the woman said, would normally go to the market early every Saturday morning. So when she had not seen him by 8 am she began asking other neighbours if they had seen him. “Uncle Vishnu does go and buy his vegetables and so and bring it for me to cook but after I see it getting late and he didn’t come I start asking for him,” she said.
Ramkissoon went to Persaud’s next door neighbour, who also said he had not seen the man.
“I was worried because I know he troubles with heart problem and high blood pressure,” the woman said.
Persaud’s gate was padlocked from the inside, Ramkissoon said, so they used his neighbour’s side gate to gain entry to his yard. “We started looking around and all the doors them was locked from inside so we know Uncle Vishnu had to be inside,” Ramkissoon said. “We take a stick and knock the flooring where I know his bed would be to see if he would make some sound to let us know he was in there but we heard nothing.”
Two gates in Persaud’s backyard which lead to his “backlands,” Ramkissoon said, were “wide open”.
As the others tried to determine whether the man was inside, Ramkissoon left Persaud’s yard and returned home but shortly after she received a call followed by a demand that she return. During her short absence other neighbours managed to gain entry to Persaud’s home. “I rush over back and when I go in the house he was laying on his belly on the floor and his hands and foot dem were tied up and at first he look dead,” Ramkissoon said.
A window curtain was partially stuffed into Persaud’s mouth, she said, and then wrapped around his head. Other pieces of cloth were used to tie his hands and feet together. “When they pull the curtain out of his mouth it was covered in blood,” the woman recalled, “and his side and one of his hand looked scorched…it look like they light he on fire then throw water on he before it catch good.”
The man was still breathing when he was discovered, Ramkissoon said, and they immediately rushed him to the hospital. “We call the police right away but we didn’t wait for them to reach… we were trying to save his life,” Ramkissoon said.
Persaud’s house was ransacked. Ramkissoon told this newspaper that clothes and other items were scattered about the place. Drawers were dislodged and the man’s wardrobe emptied. The woman suspects that more than one person entered the man’s house with the intention of robbing him.
There was no sign of forced entry to the deceased’s home, but it was observed that his verandah door, while it appeared to be closed, was left open. It was the man’s habit, Ramkissoon said, to sit on his verandah with a cup of tea in the evening. She believes it was through the verandah door the attackers gained entry to Persaud’s home. “I am still shocked over this whole thing,” Ramkissoon said. “He was a quiet man. Imagine you can’t even be safe in your home.”
Persaud’s main sources of income, according the woman, were his pension and the money he made from selling the peas and vegetables he cultivated. His sons, she said, also sent money for him but he was not solely dependent on them.
Crime seems to have expanded to the PPP’s stronghold of Berbice. This is a consequence of the government’s refusal to modernizing the police force.
why the ppp is being blame for every thing..insted of giving your condelences you are casting blame….
Bis. Berbicians are coming to their senses. Don’t be so sure that Berbice is still their stronghold. The tide is shifting. People fed up.
When hurie fish come from water battam and se congo fish gat feva, yo gat to believe am. He bin de. You na bin. Me know wa me a seh sis.
This so called story should have ended after the third paragraph.The rest is speculative hearsay but par for the course for the type of garbage journalism we see in SN every day.”Woman suspects”, “it was observed”, “the woman said” etc …How do we know the police aren’t treating her as a suspect ? Is this what the reading public deserves, SN ?
You have to understand the politics in Guyana Bispattie…My condolences to this family,,this is sad…
what a revelation by soldier. i always knew the pee pee pee was good at playing dirty when things were against them. again, when you have a weak government things like these happen on a frequent basis.
YOU RIGHT BASSMATTIE.THERE WAS NO CRIME UNDER THE PNC. I REMEMBER WALKING GT WITH ALL MEH GOLD CHAIN AND NOBADY NEVA TROUBLE MEH
Christmas eve, eve folks (tomorrow), keep your eye on the SKY. There will be a miracle.
Bismattie– It’s so wonderful you can use this crime for the maximum political mileage and in support of you very narrow selfish ends. I implore you to look deep in your tiny heart and express some form of sympathy for the victims of crimes in our homeland. It is good karma and it will release you from your self-victimization.
I Find SN only publishing all thoses anti PPP blog like Bismatttie ,i could bet this will not be published and on this article ,this is sad i hope Officer Merai get a grip on Berbice crime.
Its saad that this old man life had to end this way,and yes the ppp can get some of the blame,lack of good funding for the police E.C.T.
GTMAN0077:
That’s the reason why many neutral bloggers like myself do not read or blog on this site too often. This is a BIAS newspapa. Meanwhile, people like Bis, who pretend to be of a certain group (but is not) and DD are allowed to vent their hearsay, speculation and guesses with impunity and total disregard for simple decency and respect for intelligent Guyanese. What a shameless state this site has sunk to.
True guyanese – cuz she got a heart only full of hate for the PPP.
I agree the police needs moderninzing but not with candidates who can just read/write english. They first need to reform the education system; institute an AAS degree program. Then make it compulsory for all candidates to aquire an AAS degree before entering the police academy. Guyana needs more intelligent police officers – not just boys waiting to seh “leh me raab you a small peice”.
We must promote Rohee today, he is doing a fantabulous job!
What group is Bis pretending to be Dude?
DUDE:
You sre wrong to think that Stabroeknews is showing favouritism to anti-P.P.P. bloggers. I recently spoke to Borapork and he has informed me that the moderators at Stabroeknews have blocked every post he submitted to the community over the last week. He is both anti-P.P.P. as well as anti P.N.C. but the powers that be at Stabroeknews have electronically blocked all his postings. This was done by a newspaper that squealed like a gored pig when the government withheld advertisement from it. This high tech censorship without warning is reminiscent of communist China and anti-democratic dictatorships that Stabroeknews once fought against. Now the once oppressed are denying others the privilege of expressing their views and facts as they see it. The last time I checked my dictionary that type of action was deemed hypocritical. Give back Borapork his blogging privileges or at least let him know why he has been silenced.
I thought it was an elected Dictatorship John Brown…
Bismattie , talk your talk . The PPP sycophants like say whatever he want to say and sing the praises of the inept PPP govt . The PPP govt is responsible for the good governance of the country ,so who is to blame for all the crime , the govt of Barbados ???? Guyana is a comfort zone for criminals and some of the good people are fleeing but the ones which remain are being robbed and murdered .
Bismattie is not a supporter of the PPP and neither am I , so expect criticism . No body is stopping reddy from posting his diatribe , so leave Bismattie alone !!!!
Dude. Thank God I am not living in Guyana. I am just expressing my views, living in The Land of the Free and The Home of the Brave. Were I still living in Guyana, I may have been, “Sleeping with the Fishes”. I admire Bis. for her intelligence and independence, her politics, is her own. Let her blog.
Don’t be fooled by the gender, people; Bussupmattie is just a pseudonym. “she” could be a “man”. Heh heh heh.
Yes Cuz, crime expanded in truth to Berbice, for now all crime has to do is drive, ride or walk over the Berbice Bridge and pampa-lam crime in Berbice.
Cruel,cruel,cruel. I hope the parasite(s) that murdered this elderly man are brought to justice.
So sad. RIP Vishnu.
When will these animals be caught, I hope soon. It seems as though so many of these young men are turning to a life of crime in Guyana a solution has to be found by the government. Poor guy may he rest in peace. If these people are caught, tried and convicted they should be HUNG show no mercy.
Absolutely awful that this elderly widower had to endure such a horrific ordeal.
sad sad indeed when will this kind of non-sense stop in guyana my deepest condolences to the family,,friends and love one uncle vishnu. may his soul R.I.P; and those bastard who rob and brutilised him causing his death be caught and put to death too….
I hope so too, I cant understand y his children would not have bring him overseas….I would never leave my dad alone in a house by himself.
They probably thought he has US dollars….its a sad way how he died…
no one deserve this.
Sharda, Not everybody wants to live in America or leave Guyana. I have some old relatives that are just happy in Guyana.
Sharda, I guess you would have taken your Dad to the US bound and kicking. Have you given thought of the possibility that this man chose to remain in Guyana, where he was born, raised and made a life?
Sharda you have to understand that not everyone want to come to the u.s, especially if they are up in age, my grandmother was here and she begged to go back home because she wanted her freedom and don’t wanted to be coopep up inside.
I agree, so then Y did they not have him live with some for safety reason, thank God both sides of grandparents loved it over here for me.
I still cant get over the way he died…my heart breaks.
Why did the good neighbor who “does cook for Uncle Vishnu” ask everyone in the area if they had seen him and did not go looking for him initially.
Go back and read the story. She was looking for him and after she cannot locate him, then she enquire from neighbours. You need more than a computer.
The good neighbour has a life of her own, she can only do so much! We should all be thankful that persons like her still exists.
This is so cruel and inhumane.
This man has worked hard and when he must enjoy his labor some one has deprived him of his life for stupidness.
May his soul rest in peace. Condolences to the family.
This is a truly horrific crime and I hope that the perpetrators are caught.