As police continue to follow leads in the brutal slaying of taxi driver Sean De Freitas Sookdeo, his relatives are insisting that he was not involved in any wrongdoing and neither did he take money from anyone for the importation of vehicles.
Crime Chief Seelall Persaud had said on Wednesday that investigators were working on the theory that a soured car deal may have led to Sookdeo’s death as new information surfaced that threats were made to his life about a month ago after he failed to deliver a promised car.
Persaud said that based on information gathered, Sookdeo had taken money from several persons to import vehicles but never did. It was following the discovery of his bullet-riddled body which also bore signs of torture that the dead man’s wife told investigators that an unidentified caller threatened his life about a month ago. She is reported to have said that the caller alleged that Sookdeo took his money and failed to deliver a car as promised.
Contacted yesterday, Persaud said that investigators were seeking persons who had “attempted to do business with him”. Background checks on Sookdeo, he said, were still being conducted.
Up to press time no arrest had been made in connection with the case.
Meanwhile Stabroek News was unable to make contact with Sookdeo’s wife Alicia but his mother Carol in speaking on behalf of the family said she was unaware of the crime chief’s claims.
“I would say we never knew of whatever he (Persaud) is talking about. I didn’t know my son to be involved in that”, the woman said shortly before she began sobbing.
She said that she was of the firm belief that whoever killed him knew him well adding that the police always paint a bad picture of persons who are killed in a brutal manner.
According to Carol, the incident has left her open to hurt and all she and her relatives can do is stay strong for each other. “He was slaughtered by people that he knew well. They set him up”, she said, adding that someday God will reveal the truth about what happened to her son.
The woman said that as far as she knew her son had no problem with his United States visa as he had travelled from there sometime last week. She was responding to a report in a section of the media that Sookdeo’s visa had been revoked by the United States embassy.
“People can say what they want but only God, the perpetrator and him knows what happened”, she said.
She appealed to her son’s killers to let their conscience be their guide.
Carol recalled that her son visited her home at Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara every day and never gave an indication that something was bothering him or that he was in trouble.
“He never revealed anything to me or his wife so we are left with so many unanswered questions. We will not look for them (the answers). We will let God provide the answers”, she stressed.
Relatives told this newspaper that they have received no new information about the case.
A post-mortem examination will be performed today after which relatives say they will finalize the arrangements for his funeral.
It was passers-by who stumbled upon the body which bore gunshot wounds at Thomas Lands, Georgetown outside the National Park, at about 0600 hours on Tuesday.
Police were immediately informed and ranks after viewing the body found a total of four gunshot wounds to the head, abdomen and left arm.
There were also cigarette burns about the body which Persaud said was an indication that Sookdeo had been tortured.
Police have ruled out robbery as the motive as the man’s locked motor car was found parked in front of his sister’s McDoom, East Coast Demerara home hours before his body was found.
