Who killed the lotto winner?

Jul 22, 2012 Features / Columnists, Murder and Mystery

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–    Did a murderer really slip through that tiny window in Gangadin Khedoo’s home?

By Michael Jordan

At around 01:45 hrs on Sunday, April 24, 2005, detectives at the Grove Police Station received a series of frantic calls that sent them rushing to Lot 502 Block ‘X’ Diamond Housing Scheme, East Bank Demerara.
The large, two-storey home was the property of 47-year-old businessman Gangadin Khedoo and his wife, Kessondar.
On arriving at the premises, detectives found the businessman’s distraught wife and the couple’s 20-year-old daughter, Julie.
According to the businessman’s wife, their two sons had gone to a fair in the village on Saturday night and remained there until the wee hours of Sunday.
Mrs. Khedoo and her daughter were reportedly watching television at around 01:30 hrs on Sunday when they heard a strange noise in the vicinity of the washroom.
Suspecting that burglars had broken into their home, the woman ran to her bedroom and woke her husband.
Mr. Khedoo, she said, armed himself with his licenced revolver and went to the bathroom to confront the intruders. But the detectives were told that one of the bandits caught Gangadin Khedoo by surprise, chopping the businessman in the head with a cutlass.
The bandit, police were told, took away Khedoo’s revolver and shot him in the chest.
On hearing the gunshot, Khedoo’s wife fled down an inner stairway leading to the bottom flat with the intention of summoning help. However, she was unable to open the door, and therefore remained in the bottom flat hiding.
Meanwhile, as Mr. Khedoo lay mortally wounded, the bandit who had shot him entered the hallway and held 20-year-old Julie at gunpoint.
The detectives were told that the bandit then forced the young woman to open the back door so as to allow another man to enter.
She was then beaten and forced to give the men $300,000, a quantity of jewellery, four cellular phones, and the keys to her father’s car.
The men then bound and gagged Khedoo’s daughter before fleeing via the back stairs.
After ensuring that the coast was clear, Khedoo’s wife and daughter summoned residents, who took her husband to the Georgetown Public Hospital. By then he was already dead.
An autopsy would later reveal that Khedoo died from a single bullet from a .32 revolver. The bullet pierced his heart and a lung, before lodging in his back. He also had two wounds in his head, which were apparently inflicted with a cutlass.
Residents reacted with outrage over the brutal murder.
Gangadin Khedoo was well-liked and respected in the community.
Good fortune had come to the family about two years before, when Mr. Khedoo won the lottery. The family moved to the Diamond Housing Scheme and established a lucrative business making concrete blocks in the rapidly-developing community.
Mr. Khedoo also became a member of the Diamond Community Policing Group. The area had been hit by a spate of burglaries, which were blamed on youths from a depressed East Bank Demerara community.
There was speculation that Khedoo had fallen victim to the burglars.
Some residents alleged that suspects in these robberies had threatened members of the community policing group.
But detectives who examined the crime scene had their own suspicions.
The victims had alleged that the bandit who had killed Mr. Khedoo had entered the premises by climbing through a window near the washroom. The window was near the back stairs and an agile man could have reached it.
But the detectives who examined the window felt that it was too small for a grown man to slip through. In addition, they detected no sign of forced entry.
And there was more.
A security guard who was on duty at the Khedoos premises during the attack told the investigators that he had seen no one enter or leave.
Some hours after Khedoo was slain, detectives took the businessman’s wife and daughter into custody. They also questioned a male friend of the couple’s daughter, but did not detain him.
“We wondered whether someone might have concealed themselves in the house (with the aid of an accomplice),” a detective who had investigated the case told Kaieteur News.
The mother and daughter vehemently denied being involved in Gangadin Khedoo’s murder.
The detectives examined the hands of the slain man’s spouse for traces of gunpowder residue, but reportedly found none.
Despite their suspicions, detectives were unable to find a motive to tie Khedoo’s spouse and daughter to his death. After being detained for three days, the two women were eventually released.
To date, no one has been charged with Khedoo’s death.
Mrs. Khedoo promised to grant me an interview this week, but later declined.
About a year later, police arrested a man suspected of robbery. The suspect had Mr. Khedoo’s licenced firearm in his possession, but he was not charged with the businessman’s murder.
Today, the window that the killer allegedly slipped through and other sections of the family house are now heavily grilled.
And passersby still wonder what had really happened at the Khedoos house seven years ago.

If you have any information on this case or other unsolved murders, please write to us at our Lot 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown address.
You can contact us on telephone numbers 22-58465, 22-58491, or 22-58473.
You can also contact Michael Jordan on his email address [email protected].

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