(Trinidad Express) Viren Annamunthodo, son of murdered political activist and pamphleteer Walter Annamunthodo, was ambushed and stabbed to death as he arrived to open his businessplace on Thursday.
The murder of Annamunthodo and that of a 19-year-old man in Laventille on Wednesday night have brought the murder toll to 336 for the year.
Annamunthodo, owner of Unique Services Printery in Pleasantville, San Fernando, was attacked as he stepped out of his gold-coloured Nissan Almera car around 7.30 a.m.
The killer fled and 57-year-old Annamunthodo dragged himself back into the vehicle and telephoned his wife, Denise.
He however died shortly after she placed him in the back seat of her car.
The killing happened in the driveway of the family’s businessplace in Cassia Avenue, Pleasantville. The Annamunthodos live a short distance away in Pleasantville Avenue.
The dead man’s sister-in-law, Dawn Annamunthodo, said, “I was coming from the gym when I saw a police vehicle outside the printery. I stopped and saw my brother-in-law lying in the car. I understand that he had just arrived to open the business when he was ambushed and stabbed. He called his wife and she came with the housekeeper. They tried to put him in her car, but he died before they could have left to go to the hospital.”
Viren Annamunthodo, father of two girls and a boy, had inherited the business from his late father.
The elder Annamunthodo was killed in 1992 while editing the book Atma Greet, a collection of Hindi bhajans. His battered body was found at his two-bedroom home in St Clements. An autopsy found he was hit on the head with a stone or blunt instrument and bled to death.
Viren Annamunthodo is also a distant relative of Amy Annamunthodo, the four-year-old girl who was beaten to death at her Marabella home in 2006.
Police said Viren Annamunthodo was not robbed of his belongings, and officers were unable to determine the motive of the killing. His lunch was scattered in the driveway yesterday.
His wife and daughter, Ananya, cried as the undertakers removed his body from the car yesterday while employees hugged each other and cried.
One employee said, “I have been working here for 18 years. He usually comes in early, around 7.30 a.m., and opens the business. When I came this morning, I saw a police car.
“I heard the boss was stabbed and he called his wife. He told her he was attacked and to come. When she came with the housekeeper, she saw him and he was still breathing. She put him in the back seat of her car.
“A police car was passing and she stopped the car, but when the police checked, he was dead.”
Raymond McDavid, a friend, said he last saw Annamunthodo on Tuesday.
“We went to Paradise cemetery to clean the graves of his wife’s parents to light up this evening for All Saints. Then in the evening, I saw him watering his plants. I have known him a long time, and he was a good person. I don’t know him to have any enemies.”
Relatives said Annamunthodo recently returned from Canada, where his daughter Amrita is attending university.
Regarding the murder in Laventille, it is believed a fight over turf was the reason 19-year-old Akeil Questelles, of Dan Kelly Village, Eastern Quarry, was killed on Wednesday night.
Police said Questelles had an argument with another man over who was in control of certain parts of the community.
Around 7.20 p.m., Questelles was standing along the roadway close to his home when two men in a white Nissan Wingroad station wagon pulled up nearby.
