The kidnapping of Vishnu Bhim

May 24, 2015 Features / Columnists, Murder and Mystery

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By Michael Jordan
On the morning of Tuesday, November 29, 1994, eight-year-old Vishnu Bhim of Annandale,

East Coast Demerara, did his chores, kissed his mom, then left for school. At around midday, his father, Heerlall Bhim, who operated his own carpentry shop, was about to enter his home when he noticed his wife sitting on the stairs. She was crying. He asked her what the matter was and she handed him a note which had been delivered by a little girl who attended their son’s school.
Heerlall Bhim read the note in disbelief. The note stated that their only son—their little boy—had been kidnapped and was being held at gunpoint. It also stated that if the Bhims wanted to see their son alive again, they were to pay one million dollars for his safe return.
Warning him not to contact other relatives or the police, the kidnappers instructed Mr. Bhim to go to a telephone booth near the Beterverwagting Police Station where he would receive further instructions.
By this time, a relative had already checked at the school Vishnu attended and confirmed that he was not there. Despite the warning, the couple informed other relatives and the police about the kidnapping.
By this time, police had an idea about the possible identity of one of the kidnappers. They learnt

that on the day that he went missing, Vishnu and a girl were walking to school when a man on a bicycle stopped them. The man offered Vishnu a lift on his bicycle and the trusting child went with him. The man was identified as 19-year-old Ravindra Deo, a resident of La Bonne Intention (LBI), East Coast Demerara.
A few days before Vishnu disappeared, Deo had come to Mr. Bhim’s home to seek work in the carpentry shop. He was given a job.
Mr. Bhim would later recall that Deo appeared to be a competent worker. However, he also observed that the new worker was constantly glancing around in a manner that aroused some suspicion.
The police checked at the suspect’s home, but he was not there. A female occupant told the policemen that Deo had given her “two muddy hard-pants” to wash before going out.
While detectives and villagers searched for the missing boy, the Bhims scraped up $300,000 to give to the kidnappers. Following the kidnappers’ earlier instructions, Mr. Bhim went to the phone booth near to the Beterverwagting Station. There, he spoke on the phone with someone

who instructed him to drop off the bag containing the ransom at an area on the Beterverwagting seawall. When the worried father begged to speak with his son, he was told to “shut up.”
Informing the police about the plan, Mr. Bhim dropped off the ransom at the seawall. But though the police had reportedly staked out the area, the kidnappers somehow managed to pick up the ransom and vanish without being caught.
The following day, detectives got a break when some villagers who knew the suspect spotted him in America Street. They quickly grabbed the man and handed him over to the police. Detectives found a camera, a roll of film and $12,000 on the suspect. At first, the man denied knowing about the missing boy’s whereabouts. Finally, after several hours of questioning, Deo confessed that he, and a man whom he identified as ‘Kresho’ of Mahaicony, had kidnapped Vishnu Bhim.
It was ‘Kresho’, he claimed, who had given him the bicycle with the bar and instructed him to kidnap the child.
Police searched the Mahaicony area for ‘Kresho’, but failed to locate him.
Eventually, just before midnight on Thursday, December 1, 1994, Ravindra Deo led detectives and villagers to a secluded place on the LBI backdam. There they found the bound, gagged and battered body of eight-year-old Vishnu Bhim.  The killers had strangled the child with bits of cloth torn from his shirt. An autopsy indicated that they had murdered the boy shortly after abducting him.
Thankfully, villagers managed to dissuade the grieving parents from viewing the remains.
On Tuesday, December 6, 1994, a calm, gum-chewing Ravindra Deo appeared in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court, where he was charged with murder.
During the preliminary inquiry and the trial that followed, Vishnu Bhim’s parents were constantly reminded of their son’s brutal end.
Mr. Bhim recalled weeping in court when Vishnu’s schoolbag was presented as evidence.
Finally, on Monday, December 4, 1995, a jury found the accused, who was then 20, guilty of murdering Vishnu Bhim.
Justice Claudette Singh sentenced him to death.
“I am innocent,” Deo said before leaving the court.
A date was actually set for Deo and two other death row inmates to be hanged, but an ex parte injunction filed by their Attorneys prevented their execution. Deo’s sentence was subsequently commuted to life imprisonment and he was removed from death row.
“It took a lot of courage to go to the trial,” Mr. Bhim told Kaieteur News a few days after the case ended.
“We shed tears almost daily. We prayed every morning for hope and strength to live on. After the verdict, we thanked God, and asked that our son’s soul rest in peace.”
But the Bhims are now reliving that dreadful day of their son’s kidnapping. A few weeks ago, Ravindra Deo, now 39, walked out of the Georgetown Prisons a free man—courtesy of a Presidential pardon by former President Donald Ramotar.
Explaining his decision, Ramotar suggested that 21 years was already a long time for someone to be incarcerated, adding that “the man spent more than half of his life in prison.”
Former Presidential Advisor, Gail Teixeira, explained that Deo was one of the prisoners who had requested a pardon through the Committee for the Prerogative of Mercy.
This committee is a constitutional advisory body that informs the President of requests from persons on death row for pardoning. The body also makes recommendations.
The Bhims, who now reside in Orlando, Florida, USA, say that after spending years struggling to cope with the murder of their only child, they “feel cheated out of justice.” .
“It’s so fresh … It’s like it was just yesterday… To hear such a thing now has my wife crying. She is in shock, she can’t take it,” Mr. Bhim said.
Mr. Bhim said that about a year ago, he received news that the former President was planning to pardon the man responsible for his son’s death.
The grieving father said he returned to Guyana and raised his concerns with the former Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, who assured him that it was just a rumour.
“But lo and behold, within the short space of time, it’s a reality,” the man stressed.
The Florida-based Guyanese now wonders why the former President would pardon someone who committed such an unconscionable act.
“How could the President pardon a man who did such a horrible thing?  Why him? Why not some other person?  He took from us our only child. That‘s not right. That’s not justice.”
And what of ‘Kresho,’ the alleged accomplice in the Bhim kidnapping?
A few years ago, someone contacted me and said that a man that police had arrested on another case was ‘Kresho.’ Acting on this information, a senior police officer instructed detectives to question Deo in the Georgetown Prisons. According to the senior official, Deo declined to co-operate with the police.

If you have any information about this or any other unusual case, please contact Kaieteur News by letter or telephone at our Lot 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown offices. Our numbers are 22-58458, 22-58473 and 22-58465. You need not disclose your identity.
You can also contact Michael Jordan at his email address [email protected]

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