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Leonora beating death…Wife says she can’t ID cop who beat spouse
– but denies not cooperating with investigators
The wife of Leonora beating death victim, Asif Rahim Khartoon, is refuting claims by investigators that she is refusing to cooperate with them.
An official from the police Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) has told Police Complaints Authority Chairman, Justice Cecil Kennard, that Khartoon’s wife, Soorsattie Chandrapaul, is refusing to attend an identification parade to pick out the police rank who arrested and allegedly beat her husband.
Asif Rahim Khartoon
Justice Cecil Kennard, who received the report on Khartoon’s death last Tuesday, confirmed that he was informed that Mrs. Chandrapaul has not responded to requests by the OPR to attend an identification parade.
“What is disturbing is that the wife has failed to go to the identification parade; she has to identify the men who (allegedly) beat her husband.”
Soorsattie Chandrapaul confirmed that on Friday OPR head, Heeralall Makhanlall, had asked her to attend an identification parade.
However, the woman said that she explained to the OPR head that she could not identify the policeman that she claimed assaulted her husband when he was being arrested.
“I told him I can’t identify the man and I say I don’t want to identify the wrong person, and he say that I don’t want to cooperate.”
According to Chandrapaul, the arrest occurred at nightfall, and this prevented her from clearly seeing the policeman who struck her husband while he was in a vehicle.
The file is to be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions for further advice after the Police Complaints Authority completes its probe.
Khartoon, a fisherman of Meten-Meer-Zorg, West Coast Demerara, died two Thursdays ago, a few days after he was released from the Leonora Police Station.
A post mortem examination revealed that he died from multiple injuries to his head, face, chest and other parts of his body.
Police had stated that Khartoon was arrested shortly after midnight November 22, 2014, following investigations into a report that he had assaulted his reputed wife, Sursattie Chandrapaul.
“During efforts to arrest him, Asif Rahim Khartoon resisted, but was eventually subdued and taken to the Leonora Police Station.”
“At the station he made no complaints against the arresting ranks. At the Leonora Station, Asif was kept on the bench handcuffed to another man in custody whom he later reported had allegedly assaulted him,” the release stated.
“Asif was subsequently taken to the Parika Police Station that Saturday where he was kept in the lockups. He was charged with assault and brought to the Leonora Police Station on Monday November 24, 2014, to attend the Magistrate’s Court.”
The release stated that while at Leonora, the prisoner’s reputed wife reported that he was beaten by the police and as a consequence, he was taken to the Leonora Cottage Hospital which then referred him to the West Demerara Hospital.
He was later released and was scheduled to appear in Court on November 26, 2014.”
Khartoon’s wife alleged that on the day of his arrest, five “black clothes” ranks had handcuffed her husband and placed him to lie in the back of the police van.
The woman claimed when her husband attempted to sit, one of the ranks “tek one of the long gun and stomp he on he back”. She denied that her husband had resisted arrest.
Chandrapaul said that when she visited her husband at the station the following day, she found him in a battered state, with his face badly swollen.
After inquiring from the police about her husband’s condition, they told her that he had been beaten by other prisoners.
However, Chandrapaul said her husband insisted that police ranks had inflicted the injuries. After being admitted to two West Coast Demerara hospitals and the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation, Khartoon took his own discharge, then succumbed.
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