Has the evidence gathering and prosecutorial functions of the Guyana Police Force improved? It just doesn’t seem so from the finding of Magistrate Peter Hugh on February 28 that the prosecution failed to present a prima facie case of murder in relation to Neil Madramootoo, who was charged with the murder of his partner, Ashmin Mahadeo in November last year.
On the morning of October 1st, 2023, Ms Mahadeo, 30, of Lot 25 D Williamsburg, Coren-tyne, was shot in the back of her neck resulting in the bullet exiting in the lower area of her jaw. The police had initially held Mr Madramootoo for questioning following the incident, however he was eventually released on $300,000 bail after being held for 72 hours. He was charged with the attempted murder of Ms Mahadeo on October 23, 2023 meaning that the police had three weeks to gather the requisite evidence to substantiate their charge or alternatively three weeks to fail to gather the required evidence and botch the case. The charge was upgraded to murder on Novem-ber 16, 2023 on the same facts.
The case appeared quite straightforward. The incident occurred on October, 1st around 7:40 a.m., and according to information gathered, Ms Mahadeo and Mr Madramootoo who had been together for seven years were packing things in a vehicle that the former accused was using as they had a bridal shower planned for the day..
The victim’s brother, Naresh Mahadeo, 32, who resides overseas but was visiting for the event, said that they were asleep in the house when they heard a loud explosion.
“When I came out my bed and I come by the door I see my sister lay down by the gate and blood coming through her mouth and I rushed and go out and my wife turn her over and I run out on the street and when I asked he (Mr Madramootoo) he said somebody shot her and he go in the house”, Mr Mahadeo related to Stabroek News.
Mr Mahadeo’s wife, an overseas-based nurse, began doing CPR so as to assist the injured woman in breathing. According to the brother, after he did not see anyone on the street he also returned to offer assistance to his sister.
There was also the matter of a firearm which was found in Ms Mahadeo’s room in the ceiling. Police had said that they were awaiting ballistic and gunpowder residue tests. Presumably the swabbing of the accused for gunpowder residue would have been a key element of the evidence leading to a charge.
The question of the whereabouts of Ms Mahadeo’s phone and what it might contain also arose. The family said that at the hospital they questioned Mr Madramootoo about Ms Mahadeo’s phone, however, according to the victim’s brother, Mr Madramootoo “said he don’t know where her phone is and where is his phone and I keep asking if somebody shoot her and if is a robbery her purse was outside and they didn’t take it.”
Furthermore, the brother pointed out that nearby CCTV footage showed no one passing through the street at the time of the shooting. “I keep asking he if he see anything and he seh it happen so fast he didn’t see anything… One time he seh he went by this gate then next time he seh he went by that gate outside so I seh you ain’t see nobody move, nobody run, nobody ride, anything? And he keep saying he ain’t see anything”, the brother related.
There were other oddities in this case. The cause of death was not initially provided after the autopsy and the brother’s intervention appeared to have forced its release.
Even more troubling was the apprehension of a woman who it was suspected was intent on perverting the course of justice. In the company of a lawyer, the woman had visited the victim while she was hospitalised at GPHC apparently for the purpose of absolving Mr Madramootoo of involvement in the shooting.
The brother had told this newspaper, “I go the Friday (at GPHC) and Ashmin tell me how them seh mommy old and na gon able take care of her and them promise what what them can do for her and them try settle the matter with her.”
Further, according to the brother after Ms Mahadeo was transferred to the New Amsterdam Public Hospital he was told that the female who was arrested visited the New Amsterdam Public Hospital with the document on the evening before his sister succumbed.
“I can’t tell you if they get her thumbprint or not but she went there with the paper for it. Me hear the paper get that he didn’t shoot her and that I am forcing her to say that”, he said. Nothing else has been heard about the police investigation of the hospital visitor.
So after charging Mr Madramootoo why were the police unable to provide evidence sufficient to have him committed to a trial in the High Court. This is what Eve Leary and the Ministry of Home Affairs, in particular, should ponder. Otherwise these gleaming new edifices planned for the police force – including the bizarrely towering Brickdam station – wouldn’t be worth the effort. All of the training and the supposed forensic evidence gathering capacity would have been for naught. It is that type of accountability that is escaping the Ali administration at the moment. A lot of grandiose talk and booming construction avoids the reality that a deep dive into the facts and malign behaviour will expose policing that is glaringly lacking in rigour.
As for Ms Mahadeo’s family, they will join a long, long line of families wondering about whether there will ever be justice for them. In a society rife with all types of violence against women and girls, Ashmin Mahadeo’s killing becomes another where no one has been held responsible for brutally snuffing out her dreams and life. Sad.
