It has been six Sundays since her son was reportedly beaten to death in a crowd at the first creek along the Soesdyke/-Linden Highway and relatives have visited police three times in a desperate bid for justice, Indera Ram said.
Speaking publicly for the first time since the death of her 17-year-old son Vishaul Ram, Indera said that she feels as though police are not doing their best to investigate the teen’s death. Since his death on January 23, she noted, she and relatives have visited police thrice to speak with them about the investigation and to urge them on.
Initial reports had said that Vishaul was last seen plunging into the water from a bridge above the creek and it was believed that he might have drowned. However, a post-mortem examination later found that he suffered blunt trauma to the head and other parts of the body and there was also signs of strangulation. Indera has since said that Vishaul was not plunging from the bridge shortly before he disappeared.
“Every time we speak with the police they tell us that they will call us or keep in touch but they never call us…we have to keep running to them…they have already told us that they are treating my son’s death as a case of murder but still they claim that they are not finding witnesses,” Indera said.
One week after the incident Moneshwar Ram, father of the deceased, had told Stabroek News that police had indicated to him that they were following several leads and had said he was satisfied with the effort being made to investigate the matter.
Now, almost five weeks later, his wife Indera explained that police had initially arrested two men (a neighbour and a friend who was with them that day) for questioning and they were released three days later. Investigators, the woman alleged, never made an effort to contact relatives to keep them abreast of the developments in the case.
“It is my son and it matters to me whether justice is served and I think I at least have a right to know what they are or are not doing,” the grieving mother said.
After the incident at the creek that Sunday, she recounted, the matter was first dealt with by ranks from the Timehri Police Station. The investigating officer from Timehri, she said, took their contact number but never called with any updates. Later, relatives visited a senior police officer at the Brickdam Police Station.
“When we went to Brickdam the policeman there told us that there was only so much they could do and told me that he would call me but never did.”
Last week, Indera said, they visited Police Head-quarters, Eve Leary where they spoke with the Deputy Head of the Criminal Investigation Department. The Deputy Crime Chief, according to the woman, promised to take a look at the case and keep in touch with them.
“Just like the rest we haven’t heard from him yet and if we don’t hear from him by tomorrow then we will visit them again,” she said.
There are many people, Indera said, who saw what happened to her son that day but many of them are afraid to speak openly about it. She further said that police have not made much of an effort to locate witnesses who were present at the creek that day.
She, her husband Moneshwar, the deceased, a neighbour who was driving their car and her son’s friend who also lives in the Diamond New Housing Scheme, East Bank Demerara went to the creek that afternoon. Indera said that her son spent most of his afternoon with the friend, the driver was with a woman under a benab and she and her husband, due to certain health problems, remained in the parked vehicle.
“He and the friend were in and out of the water and they kept coming back to the car to speak with us or eat or drink something,” Indera recalled. “It was [name of friend] who first came back to the car and told me that another man was threatening to beat my son because he told his girlfriend something.”
When her son’s friend told her what had happened, she recounted, she immediately asked him why he did not bring Vishaul away and sent him back to the spot to get her son. However, the friend returned a short time later and said that he could not find Vishaul. It was then that a 10- minute search was launched for the young man.
“The place was already starting to get dark so we had to turn the car and shine the headlights on the water,” she explained.
A short time later, the woman said, a man shouted to her that they had found Vishaul. The man, she recalled, said that her son was still breathing and she should hurry. When she got to where Vishaul was lying on the sand, Indera said, persons were trying to resuscitate him and her husband was at his feet praying.
“I started to pray too…I can’t describe to you how horrible it was to see my only son lying on the ground there dying,” Indera said. “It is something, a horror, I’ll never forget.”
Indera said that her son was rushed straight to the Georgetown Public Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
She insists that the friend who was with Vishaul when the argument started up between him and the group of men should have been able to identify the men. “[Name of friend] saw these men who he left my son with and I don’t know how the police did not push him to identify them,” she said.
Investigators, the woman said, have told them that they are not finding witnesses to this alleged beating and cannot force people to say what they did not see. However, Indera reiterated that she does not believe police are doing all they can to properly investigate the incident.
