The lifeless body of a 46-year-old man was on Monday afternoon discovered in an abandoned house at Enterprise, East Coast Demerara and an autopsy yesterday showed that he was strangled to death.
Dead is Prietam Manickram called “Vishnu” and “Sharukh”, a father of three.
Reports are that the discovery was made around 1.40 pm on Monday by a relative of Manickram who went to check on him.
At the time, he was lying in the bottom flat of the abandoned house. There were no visible marks of violence.
Police spokesman Jairam Ramlakhan confirmed that a suspect was yesterday detained for questioning.
Stabroek News understands that the investigation took a twist yesterday after an autopsy revealed that Manickram died as a result of manual strangulation
While details surrounding the incident remain unclear, the dead man’s son, Balram Manickram last evening related to Stabroek News that he last saw him alive on New Year’s Day and everything was normal.
Balram said he was at work when he received a call from his sister who informed him of his father’s sudden death. “She seh she just get a message that daddy dead. So I just go up deh (Enterprise), I see the body and so and then I went and get the police them involve,” Balram recalled.
The grieving son explained that his father shared the abandoned house with two other males who he described as drug addicts.
“Is like a crew. The three ah them. The two ah them does come in the night but he (Prietam) does deh down deh whole day….it gah one in the crew is a bully, a lil tough up one. Several time when we go he does tell we that this guy (Prietam) does beat he like when he gah stuff and thing and tek it way and suh,” Balram related.
He said while it remains unclear what led to his father’s death, the family suspects that Prietam and someone might have been involved in an argument which escalated and he was strangled.
“We suspect one-two person yeah but we leaving everything in the hands of the police,” he said.
Alcoholic
Balram explained that his father became an alcoholic several years ago following his separation from his wife. “The point is that he (Prietam) and me mother separate. He end up taking somebody else fah couple years and he and that person end up and separate too and when he and dah person separate apparently like he can’t bear it and yuh know and dah is wah he become,” Balram said.
From since then, Prietam has been occupying the abandoned house.
Balram said that on several occasions he and his siblings tried to get Prietam to return home.
“We try several times fah get he to come back but the point is that if he deh with we he can’t get fah drink and thing. He could drink yeah but not every time like how he want and he choose it the other way,” he said.
Balram said at one time, his eldest sister even took Prietam to Linden but he fought to return.
Despite this, he said they still kept checking on Prietam. “We didn’t let him down. We does keep checking pun him, carry things fah him and so on,” he added.
