Dead is Bhim Narine Ramanand, 61, of Lot 1, Garden of Eden, East Bank Demerara. Police said that an investigation has been launched into the remigrant’s death. Ramanand’s body was found in his yard with his hands tied and suspected stab wounds about his body at around 9:30am yesterday. The man lived alone. His licensed shotgun and a grass cutting machine were believed to have been taken by the perpetrators.
Ramanand’s house is located at the head of the second entrance leading to the community and according to a resident, she last saw the man in his yard at around 8pm on Saturday. She said that at around 10:30pm, she heard cracking sounds emanating from the farmer’s home and this aroused her suspicion. She, however, decided against venturing over to her neighbour’s home since it was dark. But she said that she found it strange that the man’s “bad dogs” were quiet.
A relative told Stabroek News that yesterday morning a man from the community visited Ramanand’s home at around 8am to weed the yard. The man called out to the farmer several times but got no response and decided to wait since he thought Ramanand had gone to the market in the city. “The man said he been waiting but he see the light on and he thought that is not like he so he went in the yard… and there is when he see he (Ramanand) lying down near a urinal at the back of the house in a pool of blood”, the relative said. He said that the man’s hands were tied behind his neck with a rope and his body had several stab wounds. “We think he even get shoot because the wounds them look too big and a neighbour hear gunshot last night (Saturday night),” another relative related.
One relative, Anand Persaud, who lives in the nearby village of Brickery, told Stabroek News that Ramanand was experiencing problems with a “man we only know as Chung” who rented the bottom flat of the house while the farmer lived in the United States. “He is a re-migrant and he been getting problems with this man who he rent the house to,” Persaud said. He related that several years ago, Ramanand and his wife migrated to the US and sometime later, the family rented the bottom flat of the home to a man who opened a liquor restaurant there.
Persaud said that Ramanand and his wife subsequently separated and three years ago, the man returned to Guyana to live.
He said that when Ramanand returned, he discovered that his tenant had not paid the rent for more than two years amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Persaud said that Ramanand took the tenant to court and over a year ago, judgment was passed in his favour. He said that following the closure of the case, the farmer met the man occasionally but he refused to pay the debt as ordered by the court.
A friend of Ramanand told Stabroek News that the farmer encountered his former tenant several times in the past and recalled being told by the now deceased man that the former tenant threatened to harm him on a few occasions.
According to Persaud, after he returned to Guyana, Ramanand started to farm on a small scale and planted citrus trees and vegetables, among other crops, which he sold in the area.
He said that the man’s relatives and his wife are expected to arrive in the country today.
No one has been arrested in connection with the matter and police investigations continue. Ramanand’s body is at the Lyken’s Funeral Home in the city awaiting an autopsy.
