Charlieville father shot dead

A Charlieville father of one, who went to meet a potential client to give a job estimate, was ambushed and shot several times on Monday.

Naresh Basant, 40, died on the spot. His body was found at Jagbir Street, Corial village next to his Honda Civic car.

Relatives have expressed shock and bewilderment over his murder and could not understand why anyone would want to kill him.

According to reports, at just after 6 pm, Basant, a welder and fabricator of Caroni Savannah Road, Charlieville, had gone to Jagbir Street to check on a job when residents reportedly found his body.

At his Charlieville home yesterday, relatives and friends were seemingly in shock as they sat in the garage and tried to understand what had happened.

One friend said another newspaper was trying to link Basant’s death to that of used car dealer Sheron Sukhdeo, who was killed outside his Chaguanas home in 2018.

“They trying to link it, but it have no link there. Naresh was an honest fella.”

Basant’s widow Shalima, 35, said her husband was a distant relative of Sukhdeo’s widow, Rachael, who has reportedly left the country.

“He never meddle with Sheron, but you know how people like to make up things.

“He was related to Rachael, but that is a far family, so they never had nothing to really do with them. “So I don’t know why they saying how it link up with he. He is an innocent man, he don’t be in nothing, he does work seven days a week.”

She said her husband was “always working and providing for his family. He never had time to go and get involved in anything.”

“He is a good man, he never treat we bad.

“He hard-working, he give his son everything he ever want, we never lack of nothing.

“We now trying to finish we house so he does work fixing the house.

“He never borrow money from nobody. Every day he work and he put aside money to fix the house. He never ask nobody for nothing.”

Shalima said she had learned about her husband’s death through a Facebook post.

She said they were supposed to go out to dinner on Monday night to celebrate a relative’s birthday but when he failed to answer her calls, she became worried and contacted family members.

She said one relative then alerted them that a there had been a shooting in Corial village and a picture of her husband was circulating on social media.

She said the assailants did not take anything as his wallet, mobile phone and chain were still on him.

During the interview, Basant’s son, 12, sat motionless with his head down, by his mother’s side. He recently passed the SEA exam.

“I don’t know what we going to do now, is just me and him,” said Shalima.

An autopsy is expected to be done today.