Indictable crimes up in Berbice
Guyana Chronicle
December 3, 2006
COMMANDER of the Police Berbice Division, Assistant Commissioner Clinton Conway, has reported an increase in indictable crimes in the division for the year so far.
In a review Friday, he told reporters indictable crimes were up by 9.3%.
However, summarising criminal offences in general, he said there was a reduction of 31.7% in reported incidents in the division which spans from the Abary Creek, West Coast Berbice, to Orella on the Corentyne River.
Conway said that during the current year, 1,260 reports were made at the several stations in the division and 426 cases were prosecuted, resulting in 36 convictions.
He said there was a drop in rape, robbery under arms, burglary, robbery with violence, robbery with aggravation, and break and enter and larceny.
However, there was an increase in murders, with 17 cases compared with 15 for the corresponding period last year.
The commander noted too, that robberies involving firearms were carried out on business places, homes, hire cars, and on the streets.
Although there was a decline in the number of offences committed compared with the previous year, there was an increase in attacks on the high seas, due to limited marine capability, he said.
The Berbice Top Cop told reporters and business people that 21 unlicenced firearms were recovered, including 12 rifles.
In addition, he said, of the 17 murders committed, 13 cases were solved as a result of meticulous and diligent investigation aided by scientific and ballistic tests.
He referred to two bizarre murders committed during the year.
One was the murder of 16-year old Roshni Pertabsingh who was found dead in bed with her throat slashed.
She was slain in the house of a neighbour named Budhia, also known as ‘Dodo Girl’, 65, at Bangal Street, Plantation Warren, Corentyne, Berbice. She was writing the Caribbean Secondary Certificate Examinations and had been the companion at nights for Budhia, whose husband had been living for six months a year in the United States.
A post mortem examination by Government Pathologist, Dr. Nehaul Singh, at the New Amsterdam Hospital, revealed that the student died from asphyxiation and a severed trachea (throat). Sources confirmed the examination showed the girl was also raped.
Seenaught Ramnaraine called ‘Vicky’ is before the courts accused of the offence.
The other case Conway noted was that of 74-year old Kalidas Surajnarine, whose headless corpse was found in his Mibicuri, Black Bush Polder yard.
The elderly man had returned from the U.S. the day before his nude body was discovered.
Investigators believe he was attacked and slain while bathing and two brothers related to him are facing the capital charge.
Conway said high crime areas are Angoy’s Avenue, in New Amsterdam, Number 66 Village, Port Mourant, Alness, Williamsburg, and Rose Hall, all Corentyne locations.