A taxi driver of No. 2 Canje died yesterday when he set himself afire in his mother-in-law’s house while trying to elude police who had been chasing after him. The house was ravaged in the blaze.
Dead is 36-year-old Khrishendatt Phagwah.
His brother-in-law Imran Khan told Stabroek News that all he knew was that police had “chased Phagwah and then he lock he self up in me mother house and burn it down.”
According to Khan, his mother and father were at the clinic at the time and he used a spare key hidden next to the steps in order to enter the house.
According to a neighbour, Anil Jodhan, he was weeding
a yard when he saw two police officers going into his neighbour’s yard at 363 Fort Ordnance, Canje but he did not see Phagwah entering the house. The police, he said, stood there for some time. He later learned that the police had chased Phagwah from somewhere in New Amsterdam, and he decided to seek refuge at his mother-in-law. He said that when Phagwah entered the house he locked himself in.
After some time, more police came “with long, long guns” and surrounded the house. Moments later “thick black smoke” was seen emanating from the house. One neighbour from across the street thought that someone was burning tires. But upon further investigation it was learnt that her neighbour’s house was on fire. She then called the fire station which responded promptly.
According to Anil Jodhan, when the police realized that the house was on fire, they tried to break down the door but Phagwah threw kerosene at them, apparently intending to set them alight, so they hurried down the stairs.
Neighbours said that when the fire and smoke seemed too much for Phagwah he put his hands outside and screamed to them saying, “throw more water, throw more water”, then there were no more sounds.
“When he put his hands through the window them white, white,” a neighbor said.
Neighbours suggested that Phagwah might have thought that the police would have left after the fire started but they didn’t, and the police may have been thinking that he would have come out as a result of the fire but he didn’t.
It is unclear why the police were chasing after Phagwah, but some persons said that he was involved in an accident and drove away from the scene, while others said that he was being sought for “child support”.
Another neighbour said that “he shouldn’t come to the lady house and do this. Find some other place. But nah involve people with u nonsense.”
