In light of Tuesday night’s murder of Bel Air businessman, Frank Persaud, by persons who claimed to be customs employees, Commis-sioner General of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), Khurshid Sattaur yesterday said that employees do not work after 4:30pm and business persons should be aware of this fact.
Persaud, 44, a father of one of Lot 1, Area L, First Street, Bel Air Village was stabbed to death on Tuesday evening by three men who posed as customs officers. According to reports, sometime after 8 pm, three men purporting to be GRA officers visited the man’s home under the pretext of carrying out a search of his property. His wife who answered the door was subdued by one of the men and the man’s accomplices took Persaud to the back of the home and proceeded to duct-tape and stab him about his body. He was pronounced dead on arrival at the Georgetown Public Hospital.
When contacted yesterday, Sattaur said that it is customary for officers to carry out such duties only up to 4:30pm and business persons should be aware of this. He added that even in special instances, searches would not be conducted at such a time.
Police in a press release, stated that the men visited the home earlier on the fateful day. When they returned on Tuesday night they demanded to check goods that were in a storage bond and were accompanied by Persaud to the bond. The men, the release said, later called out to Persaud’s wife, Bibi Nalisha Mohamed, and told her that her husband was calling her. After entering the bond with her two-year-old daughter they were held and tied up with duct tape during which she observed her husband lying on the ground covered with a piece of plastic.
Police reported that the men entered the home and ransacked the building, escaping with a lap top computer, a quantity of jewellery, a quantity of goods from the storage bond and an undisclosed sum of cash.
Yesterday at the family’s home, Persaud’s grief-stricken wife was still unable to contain herself and had been crying uncontrollably.
Mohamed said that she has had no word from the police nor has there been any development in the investigations into her husband’s murder. Relatives and friends who gathered at the home spoke about the easygoing lifestyle Persaud led. He was described as a family-oriented man.
One relative said that his other daughter, a 22-year-old, died only four months ago and this latest death has further devastated the family.
Persaud operated a stall in the Stabroek Market area and the relative noted that he would import goods, mainly confectionery from Brazil.
