The Berbice farmer who was shot along with a 16-year-old boy on Monday morning while travelling in a boat was transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) yesterday after his condition worsened.
Bijai ‘Rohan’ Ramdass, 31 of 41 Grant 1806 Crabwood Creek (CWC) sustained pellet wounds to his head and back and is suspected to be paralyzed in both feet. The shooting occurred about four miles in the CWC backdam.
His worker, Hazrat Ibrahim, called ‘Boi’ of 114 Grant 1806 CWC suffered injuries to his side and was discharged from the Skeldon Hospital.
Ramdass was first admitted to the New Amsterdam Hospital. Speaking to this newspaper from the GPH last evening, his wife, Shalita Tejpartab, 22, said the doctors told her that eight of the pellets were lodged in the head and they suspected that there are a few in the backbone. She said he was still undergoing tests.
His mother, Radhkia Ramdass, 52, told Stabroek News that her son has also lost sight in his right eye and that the other is “going bad” as well. She said her family is living in fear because it was threatened and was distressed that it was not getting “justice.”
She said her son who has two children and another on the way, entered a partnership in a plantain farm with the main attacker but they had a disagreement.
She said the man had tried to stop her son from reaping the plantain but he contacted his lawyer and the police and they advised him to go ahead and reap.
The woman said before the shooting her son and Ibrahim were heading to the farm when they encountered a “hook trap” – with seven fishing hooks attached to a piece of board.
Ibrahim’s foot got caught in the trap and he was in severe pain and temporarily unable to walk. Ramdass then phoned his older brother, Anand to assist him to pull his aluminium boat, with a 15-hp engine attached, over the canal so he could take the boy to the hospital.
Anand told this newspaper that after helping him, he left on his motorcycle as his brother and Ibrahim headed out in the canal with the boat. He was about one mile from the road when the suspected main attacker along with three other men asked him for his brother and he responded that they were coming in the boat.
When the boat approached the suspects whipped out the gun and Anand begged them not to kill his brother but saw when they fired a shot which hit him and “blood started to spray.”
Ibrahim managed to jump out of the boat and Ramdass told him and Anand to run for their lives. His boat then capsized and he disappeared under the water and the attackers believed that he was dead.
The men were then in hot pursuit of Anand and the boy, firing shots in the process. One of the shots hit Ibrahim and he fell and pretended to be dead. They then continued to follow Anand and fired three shots at him but he managed to escape.
Ibrahim told this newspaper that he went back to help Ramdass who had clung tightly to the bush at the edge of the river. He could not pull him out and ran to Ramdass’ home to inform his parents that he was still alive.
The boy was taken to the police station and then the hospital. Anand said his motorcycle had disappeared by the time he went back to retrieve it.
He said that was the third time the men attacked his brother but nothing was ever done about it. The family is pleading for justice because they fear for their lives.
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