Latest update March 29th, 2025 5:38 AM
A daughter’s call for justice
(The Vic Puran story)
By Rehanna Ramsay
“Most people would not know that my father had a very funny side to him. He would always try to make us laugh even though the situation seemed grim. Whenever he was bothered, for whatever reason, he would sing, “Yes Jesus loves me…. In times when we did not have money, he would say, ‘The Lord provided for the birds and the bees, what about his children?’
He was a father who always wanted to see the best in us and often challenged us to shy away from mediocrity and to brush off all the negative things.”
Mikhaila and her dad, the late Vic Puran
Mikhaila Puran, who reminisced on what she called the untimely death of her father, Attorney Vickramaditya “Vic” Puran, believes that her beloved father was murdered.
Puran died late last year reportedly by accident. However, Mikhaila, a medical student at the University of the West Indies (UWI), is very skeptical of the accident theory.
She said that quite a number of people, including family members of the late Attorney share the same view.
“After the incident, my sister had requested that a thorough investigation be conducted. She had given the Officer-in-Charge her reasons why she wanted the investigation. To this day, absolutely nothing has been done and no effort has been made by the Guyana Police Force to contact members of the Puran family, not even to contact my sister who happens to be an Attorney-At-Law and is easily accessible…”
Mikhaila is the third of four of the late attorney’s children. The other siblings are Mishka Puran, Maqsood Puran and Mikel Puran.
“Though my sister was the person who asked for an investigation, the police did not even extend the courtesy to her of letting her know that they were releasing the vehicle, which would have been a key element in proving that foul play was involved.”
The police declared Puran’s death an accident but as far as Mikhaila is aware, the scene of the “accident” was not investigated thoroughly to determine how the mishap occurred.
The police are yet to offer the Puran family an explanation for subsequently declaring that it was an accident.
“As far as we are aware, there is no report as to the depth of the water in the trench, any debris on the road, point of impact, condition of the vehicle, or any pronouncement as to why the headlights were off, windows up, air-conditioning off and the vehicle in park.”
In addition, Ms Puran claimed that the pictures of her father’s dead body are sufficient to prove that it was not an accident.
“When rigor mortis stepped in, his body took the form of a person in a seated position holding on to a steering wheel. If his vehicle had indeed been turned over with him alive in it, he would have never been found in that position.”
Nonetheless, Mikhaila still has faith that justice will come for her father. She pointed to the fact that three decades after Dr Walter Rodney passed away, the government announced that international probe will be launched into the circumstances surrounding his death.
“I’m hoping that the same can be done for my father. Things are still relatively fresh and much can still be done. I saw that Minister Rohee is willing to assist with the investigations, and that is a step forward.”
Vic Puran was the eldest of four children. He has two sisters and a brother, all of whom have migrated to the United States. Puran choose not to migrate because of his love for this country. He attended Queen’s College as a boy and had been excelling academically from an early age.
He also worked to support his family from an early age. While studying in London, Puran worked long hours and yet managed to finish law school successfully. He credits himself for pulling his family out of a degree of poverty.
He would often tell his children, “Imagine I did that in one generation. The four of you combined would be unstoppable”.
“I would like my father to be remembered first of all as a loving and responsible father, a brilliant legal mind, a person with social consciousness, and a truly beautiful human being.”
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