Rat catcher on murder charge after Sisters Village chopping

Suraj Jailall
Suraj Jailall

A rodent control officer was remanded to prison on Thursday after he was charged with the murder of Suraj Jailall, the cane harvester who was chopped in the head during a row at Sisters Village, West Bank Demerara on Sunday.

Donald Grovesnor, called ‘Black Boy,’ 25, of Lot 19 Sideline Dam, Sister’s Village, appeared before Magistrate Zamilla Ally-Seepaul at the Wales Magistrate’s Court.

Grovesnor was not required to plead to the indictable charge and the matter was adjourned until March 27th.

Jailall, 29, called ‘Nishal,’ a resident of Lot 34 Sisters Village, Sideline Dam, succumbed at a city hospital on Monday afternoon, just over a day after he was chopped.

Around 1 am on Sunday,  Jailall sustained a wound to his face, which resulted in a section of his ear being severed.

Jailall was subsequently taken to the West Demerara Regional Hospital (WDRH) before being transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH), where he succumbed around 3.30 pm on Monday.

Grovesnor was taken into custody on Monday evening, following the death of Jailall.

Savitri Barran, Jaiall’s sister, had told Stabroek News that she was told that her brother and the suspect were drinking at a shop in the community and an argument started. “They started to argue and come out and exchange word and he (Jailall) pick up a stick and he (the suspect) go home for cutlass….but he (Jailall) didn’t do nothing. He drop the stick and was sitting down when he (the suspect) come from behind and just chop he,” Barran had explained.

Barran stated that it remains unclear what might have caused the argument.

However, she said that persons would usually gamble and drink at the shop where the attack occurred.

Barran added that after Jailall was chopped, he walked home and called out for his mother.

Barran, who lives next door, said she heard and came out of her house. “He (Jailall) walk and my father come out and seh go to the station and mek a report. And they didn’t take any report. They gave him a doctor paper and seh go to the doctor, leh the doctor look yuh and then he go come back there,’” she recalled.

She said Jailall went to the WRDH, where he received stitches to the injury he sustained and was admitted at the said institution. He was transferred to the GPH on Monday morning and underwent a CT-scan, after which the family learnt that he sustained a fractured skull.

Barran has voiced her belief if only the hospital was not cavalier in its treatment of her brother, his life could have been saved.