Thursday May 15, 2003

A man has been taken into custody while Police continue their investigations into the discovery of the battered body of a truck driver on the De Hoop Public Road on Tuesday night.

The fatal spot: Where this black flag flies is where Harrilallghie's bloodied body was found on Tuesday evening. His truck which he had operated earlier the day is also in the picture. 

The bloody body of Harrilallghie, 45, of De Hoop, Mahaica, East Coast Demerara, which bore multiple chop wounds, including strokes to the head, was found lying in front of the entrance to his gate.

Gangadai Singh sits in her hammock yesterday contemplating what she should do next after her husband was murdered. Next to her is one of her husband's sisters.

(Ken Moore photos)

According to a statement from the Police Public Relations Department yesterday afternoon, Harrilallghie was chopped on the head and left on the roadway. The police said that shortly after a passing vehicle drove over the body. Investigators are still attempting to verify the identity of the vehicle. The chopping suspect, a relative of the deceased, has been taken into custody, the statement added.
According to Harrilallghie's wife, Gangadai Singh, she along with other relatives who live in the same home were at the home of businessman Vic Singh who had been kidnapped earlier Tuesday evening when at about 9:45 pm they were told that someone had been knocked down and was lying on the road.
A sorrowing Gangadai related that she immediately abandoned what she was doing and rushed to the scene. She said when she approached the body she could not believe that it was her husband lying on his back on the ground. Moments later, the woman said, police officers who were investigating the kidnapping at Singh's home turned up at the scene and after examining the body told her that it was not an accident but murder.
She noted that her husband had a broken arm, several chops on his head, lacerations on his back and a number of scratch marks. She observed too, that there was a lot of blood on the ground where he was killed.
Gangadai recalled that when the police told her that her husband had been murdered she almost collapsed, adding that to her knowledge her husband had no problem with anyone to the extent that they would want to take his life.
"I don't know what he could have done to that person who kill him. All he does do is to go to work, look after his children and sometimes sit and chat with his friends."
Residents in the area said that from all indications Singh's attacker had been waiting for him.
Gangadai told this newspaper that her husband operates a truck, which he used to transport, sand, paddy and other material for people. She said at the time when she left to go across to the kidnapping scene, her husband had not arrived home from work as yet.
She is of the opinion that it might have been as soon as he came out of his truck that he was killed. The dead man's body was only removed from the road yesterday morning and transported to a city mortuary.
A pole bearing a black flag has since been placed at the spot where Harrilallghie's body was found. His truck was also still parked at the corner. He leaves to mourn three children, ages, 20, 21 and 22. A tent has been erected in the yard already and a traditional wake was held last evening.