Burglar beaten to death at Good Hope

Jul 28, 2010 News

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– cops detain five, residents stage mini-protest

Police on the East Coast of Demerara have detained five men following the death of a burglar who was caught in the act early yesterday morning.
But residents of Good Hope, East Coast Demerara, are up in arms over what they described unfair treatment of the men in custody.
The burglar, whose name was given as Kurt Mayers, of Better Hope, South, also on the East Coast of Demerara, died while receiving treatment at the Georgetown Hospital, hours after he received a merciless thrashing from the Good Hope residents.
This was not before he had inflicted severe wounds on his victims during an attack in their home.
Police in a press release stated that around 03:35 hours yesterday, one of the burglary victims, Mahendra Persaud, 32, reported to the police that he had caught a man who was found stealing from his house.
The police said that they responded and upon arrival found Mayers in a naked condition on the ground with his hands and feet tied and marks of violence about his body.

The police said that a bag which Mahendra claimed was found in Mayers’ possession was handed over to the police and contained a quantity of jewellery, a cell phone and a torchlight.
Persaud, a Maintenance Manager at the Tower Hotel, along with his brother Muneshwar, a forestry official with a local logging company, his neighbours Shailendra Singh and his father Shawn, and Christopher Gooding, were taken into custody as police conduct their investigations.
All of the suspects were detained when they went to the Vigilance Police Station to give statements.
Despite visible injuries about their bodies, they were made to wait several hours before they were handcuffed and taken to the Enmore Polyclinic for medical attention.
Mahendra sustained a laceration to his head while his brother Muneshwar was severely bitten during the confrontation with the intruder.
According to reports, the Persaud’s were asleep in their home when Mayers gained entry by removing a few louvre panes from a window at the back of the house.
The intruder entered one bedroom where he ransacked and removed several articles unknown to the sleeping occupants. However when he entered another room occupied by Muneshwar Persaud, his luck ran out.
Persaud was aroused by a strange feeling of someone standing over him.
“Me brother said that he feel when somebody come over he but in between sleep and wake, he wasn’t sure if was the other brother. By the time he look back properly, he see that is not he brother and he wait fuh de man turn around and then he push he and jump off de bed and the man started to beat he,” Devika Persaud, a sister of the two Persauds told this newspaper.
By then his brother Mahendra was awakened by the commotion and went to his brother’s rescue and as they struggled with the intruder, he was bitten on his back.

Despite the heavy rain, the commotion aroused several neighbours.
One of the neighbours recalled that around 03:50 hours he got out of bed to get something to eat when he heard someone shouting for “thief, thief”.
“I shout to my wife, ‘whey me cutlass deh?’ and I run out and I see they had he (intruder) at the back. Mahendra get lash in he head and de other brother get a big bite on his back. So I help to hold this man down and we tie he to de fence and other neighbours come around and start inflicting licks,” the neighbour told Kaieteur News.
He said that since the incident occurred, residents telephoned the Vigilance police station but they got no response.
“When I call Vigilance, dey sleeping. I had to call BV. When I call back Vigilance, like they take off the receiver. They didn’t come until quarter to six. When they come, they throw the man in the vehicle and carry he to the hospital,” the neighbour explained.
He said that the burglary victims accompanied by two other neighbours, voluntarily went to the station to give their statements and were promptly taken into custody.
“They handcuff the boys and throw them into the vehicle and carry them to Enmore for treatment. Why they handcuff the victims? They are the ones being victimized,’ the neighbour said.
Premdat Deokarran, the Persauds father told Kaieteur News that he was at work when he received a telephone call from one of his sons, informing him that a bandit was caught in their house.
He said when he arrived at Good Hope he found the house in a mess and was told that his sons were at the Vigilance Police Station.
A livid Deokarran said that at the station he was treated roughly by the police.
“I tell them, ‘tell me something, my sons are no killers, if the bandit had killed them in the house, that would have been fair?’ my sons did nothing but defend themselves, it is the entire village who run out,” Deokarran said.
According to residents of Good Hope, there were several breakages in the community within the past six weeks and their calls to the police were treated casually.
They lamented the fact that if protecting their property would lead to their arrests, then the law is heavily in favour of the criminals.
“What are they putting people to do in this country? The citizens of this country have no rights. “What really the President, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Home Affairs really doing? They want to be presidential candidate and they can’t look after crime in this country, where citizens cannot walk free,” Deokarrran lamented.
“They lock up good, decent citizens while the bandits getting first class treatment at the hospital,” he added.
Another Good Hope resident John De Costa, whose house was also broken into early yesterday morning, told this newspaper that items stolen from his house were found on Mayers.
He said that the intruder also left a knife in his house.
“If he still had de knife he woulda kill dem boys. This is ridiculous,” he said.
“If you catch a criminal inside yuh house, yuh got to say, ‘hey buddy, come sit down and tell me wha yuh want fuh eat and drink, tek wha yuh want and when yuh done, go along yuh way.’ That is how they want yuh treat de criminals, very nice,” another neighbour stated.
Investigators said that they will detain the villagers until advice is obtained from the Director of Public Prosecutions.

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Bids received for 15 of 17 tenders

– nine tenders from Agri Ministry

Seventeen projects were available to be bid on when the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTA) collected bids yesterday morning. The NPTA, however, did not reveal the costs neither the amounts that were offered for the projects. The Tender Board also did not reveal the identity of the bidders and the projects they bid on.
Of the seventeen projects available only two were not bid on. The first was for the supply of fuel to the State electronic media, and the second for the supply of one reconditioned dump truck for the Region 2 Regional Democratic Council.
The National Communications Network (NCN) has put out a tender for the procurement of fuel for the entity, but the information available at the Tender Board did not indicate whether the fuel was for transportation or other purposes. No bids were submitted for this.
The Ministry of Health went to tender for the supply and delivery of pre-printed material, again no specific information was available. This was the case for all of the tenders placed with the board and for which the bids were cleared yesterday.
Strangely, the Environmental Protection Agency tendered for the construction of a fence and driveway for the Ministry of Public Works building, Sophia Laboratory, Eastern Highway.
On the other hand, the Ministry of Public Works and Communication tendered for rehabilitation, construction and maintenance of roads in Region 3.
The Ministry of Local Government requires a reconditioned dump truck for the Regional Democratic Council of Region 2, but no one bid on the tender put out.
Still under Local Government, tenders were put out for the rehabilitation of Kumaka Waterfront to Airstrip Road at Moruca, and the rehabilitation of roads from School Road Junction to Lalta Persaud’s residence, Port Kaituma, in Region One.
The remaining nine tenders were all submitted by the Ministry of Agriculture on behalf of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority, which comes under the mandate of the Ministry.
There was a tender for the operation, servicing and monitoring of hydraulic excavators within West Coast, Demerara, East Bank Essequibo and Wakenaam Region 3.
Another tender was for procurement of Caterpillar Hydraulic excavator and bulldozer spare parts for the NDIA, and yet another for the procurement of marine and mild steel for NDIA, and still another for the procurement of High-density polyethylene (HDPE) tubes, again for NDIA.
There were more tenders for the operation, servicing and monitoring of hydraulic excavators, one tender for within Region 2, another tender says the same thing but adds, per day per excavator and the next tender for the operation, servicing and monitoring of hydraulic excavators, within East Bank Demerara, Region 4
Still within the Agriculture Ministry and NDIA, there was a tender for the excavation of drainage channels at Lower Pomeroon in Region 2.
The final two tenders were for the construction of a drainage culvert at Friendship/Garden of Eden, East Bank Demerara Region 4, and for the rehabilitation of the Garden of Eden north sluice on the East Bank, Demerara, Region 4.

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