-son criticizes police investigation

Investigations by the Fire Service into the July 20 fire at DeBuff, Canal Number One during which Bibi Saqkhena Latif died, are far from completion even as relatives say that the police have not done a proper probe.

Latif, 62, died during a fire which started at around 1 am. An autopsy had revealed that Latif died as a result of smoke inhalation. A senior police officer has told this newspaper that there was no evidence of foul play and nothing to suggest that the elderly woman was murdered. Latif had lived alone.

Contacted yesterday for an update on the results of the Fire Service investigation, Fire Chief, Marlon Gentle said that this was far from being completed. He said that investigators are still working on determining the origin of the fire and have to ask other agencies like the government electrical inspector for assistance. He pointed out difficulties being encountered such as the fact that when persons had seen the blaze, it was already consuming the building and the fact that Latif had lived alone. It will take some serious work, Gentle said.

Relatives have blasted the police for not doing a proper investigation. In a letter to this newspaper, Latif’s son, Shahabudeen Usman had said that there was an area of soot where a flame started near his mother’s bed. Pointing out that she was badly burnt with her arms and legs missing, he said that his mother was found face down – a position that she did not sleep in, on a bed that she never sleeps on, near to a door which was four to five feet away and easily accessible. “My mother suffered no physical or mental impairment that would have prevented her from trying to reach the door.  She kept four fierce dogs in the yard to protect her”, he said.

Usman, in his letter, said that based on the family’s inquiries, the last persons to see Latif alive were a couple, male and female who were drinking in the little shop she kept to maintain herself. The couple had visited the shop on several occasions, becoming friendly with his mother and gaining her trust, he said.

According to Usman, the man admitted, after being questioned by the detectives in Georgetown, to being in Canal Number Two up to around 6 pm the evening before the deadly fire. He admitted that he was living temporarily with his brother in a shack around Latif’s house and that he started to live there two weeks prior to the fire, Usman said. He recalled that an unknown caller informed the family that someone picked up a couple “fitting the description of this couple,” around 4 am in Georgetown and this couple checked into a hotel.

“While on the way to the hotel they made calls to Canal on a cell phone asking about “the fire.”  The police took the man in for questioning but since this case was out of the jurisdiction of the Georgetown police the man was transferred to the Leonora Police Station and let go after 48 hours”, he said. Usman recalled that the woman was left to go free and according to him, she started a bonfire in the shack where she was staying in Canal Number Two, not far from his mother’s home.

He also recalled that a resident who lives nearby was also called in for questioning by the police after the man in jail in Leonora had told the police that they should question him. The resident, he said, apparently quarrelled with Latif about land and had threatened her.  “My mother had relayed her concerns about these threats to me.  The (resident) was set free that evening and arrived very agitated in Canal No 2, where we were keeping a wake for my mother, to say “The scar-faced man said he will come to get all of you. I was in the cell with him. He said he will hurt all of you.” The “scar-faced man” was the male of the couple who last saw our mother alive”, Usman had written.

He had also said that there was a pair of black wedge heels found in the backyard and the fence was pushed down. “A pile of clothes was found at the side of the house that did not belong to our mother.  We took photos of this since the police did not take photos of the crime scene”, he said.

“My mother was a fighter. If a fire started she would not be lying on a bed accepting death. She would have been fighting to her last breath.  She would have made her way to the door”, he said.

“To date there has been very little help from the police although we have pleaded with them to re-open the investigation and not to turn a blind eye to obvious evidence. All we were told by the police was, ‘The man we picked up is a known con artist’,” Usman said. He pointed out that there is no fire report and documentation as to the origin of the fire. “My mother was breathing, possibly unconscious, while someone was hurting her, burglarising her home and setting her house on fire.  She had valuable jewellery and saved her money at home.  She lived alone which was no secret.  She was trusting and loving.  She was a perfect target”, he said.

“Despite there being no investigation as to the source of the fire and despite the evidence before them of foul play, the police summarily closed the case.  They closed the case based on the report of a non-forensic pathologist, who opened my mother’s decaying chest cavity and concluded that death was due to “smoke in lungs.” As far as can be established, no tissue samples were taken and no microscopic samples were done”, he said in his letter.