Latest update February 4th, 2025 9:06 AM
Five bodies to be exhumed as GPHC misplaces dead
In what is being described as a confusing and disturbing state of affairs, five bodies are to be exhumed after mortuary attendants at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) mistakenly buried the body of a 43-year-old fisherman among those that had to be given poor burial.
Surujpaul Dindyal, a father of three of Melanie Damishana, East Coast Demerara (ECD) was killed in an accident on December 9, last at Buxton.
He was taken to the GPHC as an unidentified body. The following day, Dindyal’s untagged remains was removed from a freezer at the mortuary and buried at Le Repentir cemetery, along with four other remains believed to be that of destitutes.
Two bodies were reportedly buried in one hole while three remains were buried in another.
It was some two weeks after the accident that the fisherman’s relatives were informed that he had been killed.
Initially, they thought that he had gone to sea but after days passed and he did not make contact with his family, a missing person report was made.
It was after a traffic cop saw Dindyal’s photograph on the news, that he contacted the man’s family and informed them of the accident.
On December 21, last, the dead man’s family along with the police went to the hospital mortuary but could not have located the body. They searched the other mortuaries around the city but still could not locate the remains.
It was on Wednesday last when they returned to GPHC that they were informed that the body was mistakenly handed over to the undertakers who buried the bodies of less fortunate on December 10, last—a day after the fisherman’s body was taken there.
Dead: Surujpaul Dindyal
The dead man’s sister, Annie Bharrat, is of the view that the individual who struck and killed her sibling had something to do with the mixed-up at the mortuary since if there is no body, he cannot be charged for causing death.
No Post mortem examination was done on the fisherman’s remains.
A source from the hospital explained that the attendant, who took the body to the mortuary, placed it in an empty freezer so the following day, when the undertakers went to the mortuary to remove the bodies for poor burial, they mistakenly took the fisherman’s remains too.
Yesterday, an upset Bharrat said that the police told her that they now have to get a court order before they can exhume the bodies.
“No one is helping us. The police pushing us around and now we don’t know when we are going to get this court order. Dindyal has two small children,” the woman lamented.
She explained that the man who struck and killed her brother was charged for driving under the influence of alcohol, but when they inquired about whether he would be charged for causing death, they were told that he cannot be charged if the body cannot be located.
The family is calling for a thorough investigation to be done once the body is located.
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