The body of a hire car driver was early Wednesday morning fished out of the Demerara River, after he went missing from the Demerara Harbour Bridge while returning from a funeral.
Dead is Mohan Singh, 69, of Lot 26 Da Silva Street Meadow Bank, Georgetown. According to the man’s wife, Shanta Singh, 57, she last saw her husband on Tuesday morning before he left for a funeral on the West Coast of Demerara. She said she was told that her husband had consumed a little alcohol before setting off for home. The weeping woman said Singh had hitched a ride with some others in another hire car to come home, but he never came with them.
This newspaper understands that while the vehicle was on the Demerara Harbour Bridge, there was a build-up of traffic, and Singh, who according to his son Rajkumar has a bladder problem when he drinks, exited the vehicle to urinate. The father of five, however, never re-entered the vehicle, as while he was relieving his bladder the traffic began to move and the hire car driver drove away. The driver later told Singh’s wife that he did not want to hold up the traffic by waiting for her husband’s return to the vehicle.
After hearing that their father had been left behind, Singh’s sons went looking for him but their search came up empty handed. The family again went looking for signs of the hire car driver the following day and Thursday, but this too proved futile.
Little did they know that Singh’s body had already been recovered by and was already at the Lyken’s Funeral Parlour since early Wednesday morning. They were informed by officials at the parlour yesterday about the find and another son, Latchman, went to identify the body. Officials at the parlour yesterday told Stabroek News that at around 2 they received a call that a body was seen floating in the Demerara River in the vicinity of the Ice House in Kingston.
Singh leaves to mourn his wife of 34 years, whose birthday was yesterday; Rajkumar, Latchman and another son Lakeram. Singh was described by his wife as a good man who never mistreated her and their sons.
