Family suggests cover-up in ‘mistaken burial’ saga

Jan 16, 2017 News

By Brushell Blackman

The family of 46 year old Surujpaul Dindyal of Melanie Damishana who was allegedly buried by “mistake” by the Georgetown Public Hospital Mortuary, suspects that there was an attempt to cover-up this matter and there is a lot more than meets the eyes.
Dindyal a fisherman, and father of three, died following an accident at Buxton on the East Coast Demerara on the 9th December last year. According to Vidyawattie Barrat, the victim’s sister, what she finds very strange is that her brother was buried the following day.
The woman said from her understanding of a ‘poor burial’, a period of time has to elapse without anyone trying to locate or claim the body.
An upset Barrat wants to know how someone can be buried under such circumstance the very next day. “People deh in deh since February an deh nah bury yet, why deh bury me brother the next day?”
The woman says her suspicions were further aroused when she realised that she was being given the “royal run around” by the mortuary.

Ranks at the cemetery on Friday (inset) Surujpaul Dindyal

Her first visit to the mortuary was on the December 22, 2016, in the company of four police officers.
On that occasion, she was told there was no record of her brother being there. Not satisfied, she said she returned the following day, in the company of two police officers, even as she waded through knee high, smelly flood waters to find her brother.
She stated it was at this juncture that she was informed that the man had indeed been brought there following an accident, as the mortuary records showed his body was wrapped and tagged.
According to Barrat, she was told by a mortuary attendant that her brother’s body had in fact being buried already, and that the burial was a mistake since mortuary staffers thought he was someone else.
“How you can mek one mistake like dah; dah one big mistake fuh mek” the unconvinced woman lamented.
Realising that something was amiss, the police ordered that the body be exhumed after Barrat insisted.
To add to the intrigue of this story, she said all of her brother’s clothing were removed, something she did not see in the case of the other two bodies that were in the same grave with him. The woman said that she can only conclude that someone wanted her brother to vanish without a trace, along with the circumstances surrounding his demise.
She recounted after the story was highlighted in the media, she was sent photographs of the alleged driver who was involved in the accident. She later learnt he is a computer technician.
A post mortem examination is to be carried out today and charges are to be made once the man’s body is positively identified. The family says that they just want to give their brother a dignified burial and then they will contemplate their next move as is regards what the woman calls an “embarrassing state of affairs” by a public corporation.