Judge: Monkey Town roadworks unearthed family's burial plot

AFTER visiting the Monkey Town Public Cemetery to determine if a Barrackpore family’s burial plots were unearthed by roadworks, the judge visiting the site said, “There can be no doubt that graves were affected.”

Justice Frank Seepersad made the observation after he visited the cemetery on Tuesday, to get a first-hand look at the burial plots of the Sookram family.

Last week, Seepersad granted an injunction to Savitri Sookram preventing any access to the cemetery until the court did its site visit.

The Penal/Debe Regional Corporation (PDRC) was also prevented from doing any work at the site.

Sookram took the corporation to court alleging that recent roadworks at the entrance have unearthed her family’s remains, including those of her late husband, who was buried there in 2018.

In granting the temporary injunction, Seepersad said he wanted to see if any bodies or burial plots were interfered with because of the roadworks.

After his visit, Seepersad said, “In a civilised society, bodies would have been exhumed and reburied before any work commenced. This was not done and now we must do what is right and treat these disrupted remains with respect.”

He ordered the Ministry of Local Government, which has the authority to grant the necessary approvals for exhumation and reburial, to issue the exhumation order by Thursday.

The corporation also has to meet then to decide if it will pay for the reburial of the Sookram family’s remains.

The matter was adjourned to Friday, and if there is no agreement by then, the judge will decide who is to pay the costs of the re-interment.

Seepersad said the primary concern of the court, at this stage, was to ensure that the dead rest in peace and to abate the emotional distress of the Sookram family.

He also granted permission to resume roadworks at the cemetery, but said they must be contained to two feet from the retaining wall constructed at the site to prevent further land slippage, because the cemetery sits on a slope.

At last week’s hearing, Sookram asked for the five bodies to be re-interred in the same family plot.