Sister of boat collision victim says threats made to her life

Khirool Noorajhan, the sister of the Pomeroon boat collision victim whose death is now being treated as murder, says that she is living in fear after threats were made to her life for reportedly being too vocal.

Noorajhan visited police headquarters at Eve Leary on Friday and was advised to lodge an official complaint at the Charity Police Station. She plans to do so when she returns to the Essequibo Coast later this month.

Mohamed Abdool Shameer, who was travelling home in a small boat on the night of April 25 was, hit by a larger vessel. It is being alleged that instead of assisting in getting him to the hospital or informing the police, two persons, nephew Lennox Baharally and Rondell Edwards, who were in the boat that hit him, transported his body to Moruca, where it was buried in a shallow grave and covered with leaves and tree branches.

Mohamed Abdool Shameer
Mohamed Abdool Shameer

Baharally and Edwards were last week charged with the murder.

In the weeks leading up to the charge being laid, Noorajhan had repeatedly expressed her dissatisfaction with the pace of the police investigation.

Stabroek News had published several reports in which Noorajhan spoke on the issue.  Noorajhan said on Friday that as a result of information reaching her about threats to her life, she felt her only course of action was to visit the CID Headquarters.

She said her troubles started shortly after she expressed her displeasure about the way the investigation was being handled and became very vocal.

The woman said that in May she had cause to lodge a police complaint against a woman who began signaling threats.

“She is telling people she gon’ deal with me because I postin’ up thing in de papers. So I want de newspaper to carry an article [because] if something wrong with me, they are fully responsible for it,” she said, while adding that her relatives and friends are now urging her to be careful.

Shameer, 58, was found some 60 miles from the scene of the boat crash, gutted and buried in a shallow grave. He was said to have been in a paddle boat at the time of the collision and the other, larger boat involved in the accident was reportedly being driven by Baharally, who was in the company of two others, including Edwards.

The two men were later arrested and questioned about the matter but were eventually released on bail without charges being laid.

The investigation was later handed over to ranks in Georgetown.

A file was prepared after the investigation was completed and that along with a statement from the Maritime Administration was sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for advice. The DPP recommended a murder charge for the duo as well as that a corruption charge to be instituted against a policeman accused of collecting some $2M to delay the investigation.