Latest update February 6th, 2025 7:27 AM
Break in Babita Sarjou case?…Cops detain missing woman’s husband, other man
Police last night hinted at a major development in one of their most intriguing cold cases, with the taking into custody of the husband and a male friend of Babita Sarjou. Sarjou vanished without trace almost six years ago.
Missing since 2010: Babita Sarjou
Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum disclosed yesterday that investigators detained Sarjou’s spouse and another individual on Thursday evening. The two men were still in custody up to press time.
Kaieteur News understands that one of the individuals had resided at Timehri and also resides in Charlestown. Police had detained him during the early stages of their investigation.
However, Blanhum declined to say what information police have received that led to the recent arrests.
Sarjou, 28, left home on November 4, 2010 after telling her mother, Champa Seonarine, that she would be meeting with her estranged husband and four-year-old son at the Kitty Seawall to view the annual Diwali Motorcade.
She was expected back at her mother’s Timehri residence around 21:00 hrs that night but never returned.
Family members attempted to contact her on her two mobile phones but they appeared to have been turned off.
Ms. Seonarine claims that the following day, a female relative received a text message from a man who is closely associated with Babita.
The same man reportedly sent another text message enquiring whether Babita had turned up.
Mrs. Seonarine said she first informed ranks at the Timehri Police Station about her daughter’s disappearance then made a similar report at the Kitty Police Station.
That led to police detaining and questioning a man and searching his home and septic tank.
They also searched two other homes, but found no trace of the missing woman.
Checks with Immigration officials showed no records of her leaving Guyana.
In 2014, police requested DNA samples from Sarjou’s mother, after finding the skeletal remains of an unidentified woman on a Berbice foreshore.
Sarjou had filed a harassment case against her husband, but the matter was subsequently dismissed.
Last week, Commissioner of Police Seelall Persaud and Crime Chief Blanhum met with Sarjou’s mother, Champa Seonarine, and formally notified her that police had re-opened investigations into her daughter’s disappearance.
Investigators contacted several individuals about Sarjou’s disappearance, and were able to obtain statements from them.
The Caribbean American Domestic Awareness Organization (CADVA), a Human Rights Organization, has been pressing the police to have the Sarjou case re-opened. During a recent press conference, Chief Operations Officer Dianne Madray criticized the police for the investigation they had conducted into Sarjou’s fate.
“Every little clue they get, the organization would forward the information to the police,” she said.
“When she disappeared, we gave her phone to the police, where she was threatened. We showed them Facebook messages, but none of those things can be found now,” the woman said.
Kaieteur News was told that the police never attempted to obtain a printout of all the calls made to and from Sarjou’s phone.
Madray said that in 2012, CADVA had appealed to the Director for Public Prosecutions (DPP), Shalimar Ali- Hack for assistance.
On January 6, 2012, CADVA was informed in writing by the DPP that further investigation was recommended to clarify certain issues.
“The DPP had advised that a sample be taken from the bone tissue of the skeletal remains of a female that had washed up at the Weldaad foreshore less than a year after Babita disappeared,” Madray said.
Kaieteur News was told that upon completion of all of the investigations recommended, the file should have been returned to DPP for further advice, but as of April 2016, that file was never returned.
Madray said she had sent a letter to the Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan, and on March 29, last, she received a response that her request would be passed on to the Commissioner of Police, Seelall Persaud.
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