An aunt and uncle of the three-year-old boy, who was hospitalised after a savage beating, have been taken into police custody, while the child’s condition is improving.
Charran “Sanjay” Sahadeo was taken to the Fort Wellington Hospital on Saturday after he was beaten about his head and body with a stick because he did not want to rock a relative’s baby.
The aunt and uncle were arrested following a swift investigation by officers of the Probation and Welfare department at Fort Wellington.
When Stabroek News visited the child yesterday, he seemed to be in good spirits. He was able to open his eyes and he was taken out of the ward by staff and was running around, playing like a typical child. Public-spirited citizens visited, taking teddy bears, clothing and goodies for him. He was also given ice-cream and was trying to feed some other visitors who were around.
His aunt, Sunita had told this newspaper that the child was living with his mother, Babita (Sunita’s sister) and his stepfather at “Kayman Sankar Backdam” at Blairmont. She said the child was beaten and abandoned in front of her closed door with a plastic bag containing his clothing, birth certificate and clinic card. The woman, who has a one-month-old baby, kept denying that she and her reputed husband were responsible for the child’s beating.
However, this newspaper was told that while the woman had the baby in her hands “she slipped up and said this is the baby he [Charran] does rock.”
Charran also told this newspaper yesterday that it was in fact the aunt and uncle who had beaten him and that a young cousin threw the pepper sauce in his eyes. The child said the relatives “beat me in me face with a stick” and hit his head on the wall and even choked him. He also confirmed that his mother and stepfather were living in the “backdam.”
The aunt has 12 children with both her former husband and her present partner. Five of her children are at the Camal’s Home at Albion, Corentyne while another is at an orphanage in Georgetown. The cousin who threw the pepper sauce at Charran had reportedly escaped from the Camal’s Home.
Meanwhile, Stabroek News learnt that the uncle, whose left leg is amputated, was placed on a bond after he appeared at the Blairmont Court, charged with physically abusing one of his stepdaughters. The child had run away and hid in the bush for the entire night and after the probation officers received the report, the man was arrested and charged and the child was sent to the home in Georgetown. He also spent one year in jail for reportedly chopping someone.
Meanwhile this newspaper was told that there are only two officers attached to the probation office in West Berbice and that is inadequate for the number of social problems which are caused mainly by substance abuse.
At the Blairmont Court yesterday, Magistrate Nigel Hawke dealt with five domestic matters in less than an hour. The magistrate had commented that systems have to be put in place to bring an end to such problems.
According to a source, “If the staff is increased the problems would decrease.”
