Puruni mining camp guard murdered, dumped in pit

A security guard of a mining camp located in Oku Backdam, Puruni was on Tuesday found face down in an abandoned mining pit with a wound to his throat, three days after he went missing.

Dead is 29-year-old Rishaba Dusrajh also known as ‘Valmiki’ and ‘Taliban’ of Station Street, Kitty and Good Hope, Essequibo Coast.

The police in a press release said that Dusrajh’s body was found in an abandoned mining pit at Oku Backdam, Puruni on Tuesday with a wound to his throat and three men are in custody assisting with the investigations.

Rishaba Dusrajh
Rishaba Dusrajh

Dusrajh’s eldest sister told Stabroek News that her brother did not frequently visit his home nor did the family hear from him regularly. She recalled that the last occasion she heard from him was during the month of April when he had called to wish his nephew good luck before he wrote the National Grade Six Assessment examination.

According to the grieving woman, her brother was a former member of the Guyana Defence Force and had been employed as a security guard in the interior for over one year. She related that she received a call around midday on Monday from Dusrajh’s previous employer who is well known to his family. The woman informed her that Dusrajh had been missing for two days and she learnt that he had been chopped.

Moments later, she said, she received another call, this time from the wife of Dusrajh’s then current employer, who related the same information.

Dusrajh’s sister explained to this newspaper that based on the information she received her brother was having a Saturday night hang with another security guard who worked with him and two friends when an argument ensued between him and the security guard identified as “Killa”.

During the argument, she was told, the suspect picked up a cutlass and dealt Dusrajh a chop to his face. The injured Dusrajh was picked up by his two friends and taken back to the security hut of the camp where he worked.

Apparently, the suspect, who wasn’t satisfied, followed them and later, while Dusrajh was left alone sleeping in the security hut, the suspect reportedly entered and dealt him several other blows about his body, including a chop to his neck. After the suspect realized that Dusrajh was motionless and bleeding profusely, he reportedly bound his feet and dragged him to a nearby abandoned mining pit and dumped him in.

This newspaper was made to understand that after Dusrajh was not seen about his co-workers began to worry but it was later when Dusrajh’s employer was on his way to the police station to make a report about the matter that he spotted the suspect at the Bartica stelling about to depart in a bid to escape. He was apprehended and handed over to the police and on Monday, he confessed to committing the crime.

During his confession, he told the police what had transpired and it was from that information that the police were able to locate and retrieve Dusrajh’s body in the mining pit.

Stabroek News was made to understand that the dead man’s body was transported yesterday to Georgetown and is currently at the Lyken’s Funeral Home awaiting a post-mortem examination.