A SHORTCUT THAT KILLS

Jul 19, 2015 Features / Columnists, Murder and Mystery

By Michael Jordan
I’ve come to dread this short, winding track, with the bushy stretch of land nearby where the cows graze, and the small white bridge that links Diamond Housing Scheme to the neighbouring Grove community.

Bharrat Pitamber and his wife

I sometimes pass this way at dawn with the joggers and track-suited walkers. Never after sunset, though. Residents call this area ‘The Aqueduct’. They might as well have named it the devil’s shortcut.
Bad things seem to happen to people who use it at night, thanks to the young robbers—male and female, I understand—who lurk there. It’s not unusual for those living nearby to hear the screams of the victims.
Bharrat Pitamber, the tailor, knew of the risks of using the shortcut at nightfall. He’d almost been robbed before while riding through that track. But that didn’t stop him from cutting through ‘The Aqueduct’ on the night of Tuesday, July 1, 2014. Maybe he was anxious to go home to his wife and six-month-old daughter, and to a hot dinner after a hard day’s work.
Earlier in the day, at around 07:40 hrs, Pitamber left his home at Lot 1401 Section ‘C’ Grove, East Bank Demerara. He then headed for his tailoring shop, located on the East Bank Demerara public road. While there, Pitamber sold a caged bird to an acquaintance for $45,000. He reportedly collected another bird from the same acquaintance. Then he rode through the shortcut for the very last time.
THE LITTLE BOY’S TALE
It’s said that at around six o’clock that same night, a 15-year-old boy left his Grove home on a bicycle to buy some chicken at the East Bank Demerara Bounty Farm outlet. A friend accompanied him on the

Did the killer leave this bike at the scene?

same bicycle. Because he had an injured leg, the 15-year-old reportedly told the friend to ride to the outlet and buy the chicken, while he waited.
The 15-year-old was reportedly joined by two other boys, and they all rode west up a roadway in Grove that runs parallel to the Diamond access road. And they were a short distance from ‘The Aqueduct’ when they saw the friend, who had gone to buy the chicken, riding towards them. This boy alerted the others that he had seen a man lying on the roadside near ‘The Aqueduct’, and that the man was calling out for help.
The 15-year-old alleged that when they reached the scene, the wounded man, later identified as Bharrat Pitamber, was still alive.
Two bicycles were reportedly on the ground nearby, as well as a caged bird. They also saw a large ‘Rambo’ knife, with which Pitamber’s assailant had reportedly stabbed him in the chest.
The 15-year-old and a 12-year-old rushed to the nearby Diamond Fire Station and told the staff about the injured man.
The men summoned the police, who took Pitamber to the East Bank Demerara Regional Hospital. By then, the tailor was already dead.
At the scene, police observed a blood trail, which suggested that Pitamber was attacked soon after riding through the shortcut into Grove. He then tried to run east up the roadway, but collapsed.
From cuts on the slain man’s hands, police deduced that he had put up a struggle that caused his attackers to drop the murder weapon and flee empty-handed.
Pitamber’s cell phone, the $45,000 he had collected after selling his bird, and a receipt, which showed he had paid the rent for use of the tailoring shop, were all in his pockets. They also retrieved a bicycle and the murder weapon.
And here’s where things became devilishly strange.
TWELVE-YEAR-OLD WITH TAILOR’S BIKE
On Saturday, July 2, the day after Pitamber’s murder, a 12-year-old boy reportedly came to the home of the 15-year-old whose mother had sent him to purchase chicken the previous day. The younger boy had a bicycle, and that bike belonged to the murdered tailor.
“What you doing with that bike?” the elder boy reportedly asked his friend. It is alleged that the lads then decided to take the bicycle to Pitamber’s relatives.
The mother of the older lad claimed that Pitamber’s relatives took the lads back to the scene and then handed them over to the police. It was then revealed that one of the boys who had found the tailor had picked up Pitamber’s bicycle. Another took the caged bird. The lad who took the bicycle reportedly tried to exchange it for a phone, but the friend refused to make the swap after learning that the bicycle had belonged to a murder victim.
But what of the bicycle that police found near Pitamber?
It turned out that someone had stolen that bicycle from an elderly man while the owner was cutting grass for his cattle. Police have suggested that the bike thief and the killer are the same. They suggested that the killer panicked and left it at the scene.
Police rounded up all the lads, as well as an 18-year-old, who all denied involvement in Pitamber’s death, or knowing the identity of his killer. They were all released.
Meanwhile, those who believe in fate would say that Bharrat Pitamber’s time had come. Others are left to wonder at what might have been, had the tailor avoided the shortcut that night and chosen to ride the long way home…

If you have any information about this case, please contact us at our Lot 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown location, or reach us on telephone numbers 22-58458, 22-58465, 22-58473, or 22-58491.
You can also contact Michael Jordan on his email address [email protected]. You need not disclose your identity.