PENAL IN PAIN – Survivors of triple murder call for police protection

FIVE women who survived the execution of three of their male relatives on Tuesday morning in Penal, are calling for police protection out of fear that they might be targeted next.

They are also seeking help to bury their dead and a safe place to move out of “the house of death” which has been the scene of four murders and another shooting within the past three months.

Linda Bhajnath who lost her son, Anand Kumar, 42, grandson Kishore Kumar, 18, and son-in-law, Rolly Hosein, 26, told the Newsday, “I am frightened for my life.

“I cannot live here any more. I want to move to a safe place with daughter, daughter-in-law and my two granddaughters.”

She said this is the fourth killing in this house. Her brother-in-law, Narine Singh was killed on March 27, by an unknown assailant in the downstairs apartment of the house in which Tuesday’s incident occurred. His wife and Bhajnath’s sister, Marla, has since moved out of that apartment.

Sometime in January or February, she said, another tenant who lived in another one of the downstairs apartments, was shot in his hands when gunmen came calling. They believe that was the person the gunmen were looking for when they returned to the house on Tuesday morning at 4 am.

Bhajnath said she lived in the house at Mathura Trace, Charlo Village, Penal, with her daughter, Kimberly Dean and Dean’s common-law-husband, Rolly Hosein.

She said after her brother-in-law Narine Singh was killed, her son Anand and his family came over to sleep with her at nights because she was scared.

On Tuesday morning, she said, they were all asleep when they were awoken by a loud knocking on the door.

She said someone shouted “Police, open the door.”

Dean, who was asleep on a mattress with Hosein in the drawing room, said they got up and rushed into the single bedroom where Bhajnath, and the Kumar family, including Anand’s wife Parbatie, Kishore and their two daughters were asleep.

“They kicked down the door and came inside and called for all of the males to come outside.”

Bhajnath who said she was shaking in fright, got up, but one of the gunmen said, “Mom sit down, we don’t want all you.”

She said the three men were ordered outside and a short while later loud shots were heard.

“I thought they were shooting their guns in the air to frighten them, but when one of my granddaughters peeped through the window, she started to cry and say they kill them.”

A video posted on social media showed the three men lying face down, in individual pools of blood.

“They take my husband and my son. I don’t know how me and my daughters are going to survive, because we don’t work. I don’t even know how we are going to bury them. Family said they would help but they don’t have much either.

“They left five women, with no men to protect us.”

She said she didn't know why someone would want to kill the men in the family. She said her husband was a grass cutter and did odd jobs. Her son, she said, recently graduated from Barrackpore East secondary and was looking for jobs to help support the family.

She said he previously worked at a barbecue outlet and the money saved was used to build a room for himself and his sisters.

“He was a good child, my husband was a good man, we were married for 22 years and he never troubled anybody.”

Later Tuesday, Commissioner of Police Erla Christopher vowed to restore a sense of peace and safety to the public.

In a statement following the triple murder, Christopher said police were investigating the murder and probable causes for the crime were being developed.

She extended condolences to the bereaved family and friends.

“We know that the family, the community, and the entire nation at large are reeling from the negative impact of this brazen act of lawlessness, which causes persons to be gripped by fear as they try to continue in their daily routines.

“We will not shirk our responsibility, but use all our available resources to arrest and charge the perpetrators, and restore the sense of peace and safety to the public.”

She said a team from the Victim and Witness Support Unit would soon visit the survivors of the triple murder to provide counselling and assistance to cope with the trauma.

Christopher is also urging members of the public to share any intelligence, information and evidence to assist in bringing justice to the matter in the swiftest possible time.