Latest update November 29th, 2024 1:00 AM
Diamond taxi driver’s bound body dumped in Enmore
Residents of Logwood, Enmore, awoke yesterday morning to the shocking discovery of the bound
Rajendra Puran
body of Diamond taxi driver Rajendra Puran lying in a drain in their East Coast Demerara community.
The discovery was made around 06:30 hours when Joseph Badal went to collect his newspaper and saw the body lying in the drain in front of his house.
An alarm was raised and within minutes other residents converged on the scene to get a glimpse of the body.
The hands were bound with a leather belt while his feet were tied together with a piece of white cord.
Puran’s vest was tightly wrapped around his neck, giving investigators the initial impression that he was strangled, while his jersey was pulled over his face as if the killers wanted to prevent him from seeing where they were taking him.
Puran, who lived approximately 23 miles away, at Grove New Scheme, East Bank Demerara, is believed to be a victim of a carjacking from outside his operating base at the entrance to the Diamond New (Housing) Scheme, since his white Toyota Raum has also vanished.
Police in a short statement said that about 06:30 hours yesterday “the body of taxi-driver Rajendra Puran, 41 years, of Grove, EBD, was found at Logwood, Enmore, ECD. His feet and hands were bound and there were marks of violence to his face.”
“Investigations so far have revealed that Rajendra Puran left his home last night with his motorcar HB 9875, a white Toyota Raum. The motor vehicle has not been recovered as yet,” the police said
From all indications, Puran, a former money changer who operated on America Street in the city, was killed somewhere else and then taken to Enmore where his body was dumped.
There are reports that he had picked up a passenger from Overhead Tank Street in Grove on the East Bank of Demerara, just before he went missing around 21:00 hours on Wednesday.
Residents of Enmore where the body was discovered told investigators that they heard nothing strange on Wednesday night or early Thursday morning, since they claimed it was raining heavily.
However, investigators believe that the killers had to have some knowledge of the layout of Enmore, in order to successfully dump the body there without difficulty.
Robert Badal told this newspaper that he did not sense that anything was wrong when he got up to collect his paper which is usually placed on his fence by the newspaper vendor. However, he did not see the papers at the usual place and only looked up and saw the newspaper vendor riding away.
Badal is convinced that the newspaper vendor saw the dead man and hurried away from the scene and left his papers on the neighbour’s fence.
“De paper man come and instead he lef me paper at de gate, he lef it over at de next yard, because like he see de man and get frighten. After I see he mek a dash out, I go at de gate and peep see how far he deh fuh ask he wha happen to me paper, when I do look, I see dis man lie down in de drain deh,” Badal told this newspaper.
“It scare me, yes. All me foot get weak, because fuh see something like dat early morning,” he added.
Several persons converged on the scene, but none of them could identify the man when invited to do so by the police.
About an hour later, the police secured their first breakthrough when the dead man’s wife and other relatives turned up to identify the body.
One of his brothers told Kaieteur News that he last saw him on Tuesday.
According to the brother, Puran’s wife contacted him with the news that the taxi driver did not come home on Wednesday night.
“I tried calling him on his phone too, but I wasn’t getting through,” the brother related.
He said that he went to Puran’s home and together with his wife, he went to the Golden Grove Police station where Puran was reported as missing.
The brother said that after leaving the station, they were heading to the Diamond car park when they received a telephone call that a body was found at Enmore, East Coast Demerara.
Although they decided to travel to the East Coast, the family was hoping that the body was not that of the missing taxi driver.
However when they reached the scene, they soon found out that the body which was lying under a sheet at the side of the road was indeed that of Rajendra Puran.
“We don’t have a clue about who did what or anything,” the brother said.
Police disclosed that a post mortem examination will be performed shortly.
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