3 years later: 3rd suspect in murder of overseas-based Guyanese arrested

After evading Police for more than three years, Jason Isaacs of Bristol Street, East Canje, Berbice, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) wanted for the 2021 murder of United States-based Guyanese businessman Hemraj Pardesi, was arrested on Tuesday at the Weldaad Police Station.
In May of this year, Police issued a wanted bulletin for Isaacs. According to a statement from the Guyana Police Force, Isaacs is also suspected of fatally shooting a man in Suriname on October 12, 2023. He was arrested in Suriname on October 13, 2023, but escaped from the Paramaribo University Hospital and had been on the run until his arrest on Tuesday by the Guyana Police Force.

The Police had first issued a wanted bulletin for Isaacs in 2021 in connection with Pardesi’s murder, but he managed to evade capture. Reports indicate that Pardesi, known as “Prem”, of Lot 9 Reliance, East Canje, Berbice, was attacked in his yard by two suspects in August 2021 after his close associate, who had accompanied him to the bank earlier that day, had left. His lifeless body was discovered at the bottom of his outdoor steps, bleeding from the nose with duct tape around the neck. The upper flat of his house was ransacked.

Days after Pardesi’s death, Maryo Bissoondyal of Cumberland, East Canje, Berbice, and Malisha Dutchin, 26, of Reliance, East Canje, were charged and remanded for his murder. Police arrested Bissoondyal while he was hiding in Canje Creek, Berbice, where he allegedly confessed to being part of the plot and execution of the robbery-murder.
He implicated Dutchin and Isaacs, revealing that the robbery was reportedly Dutchin’s plan. Dutchin later surrendered to authorities, allegedly admitting she had a relationship with Pardesi and had called him to her house the night he was killed, but claimed she knew nothing of what happened afterward.

However, Bissoondyal allegedly told the Police that Dutchin lured Pardesi to her house via a phone call and contacted Isaacs after he left. Bissoondyal and Isaacs then went to Pardesi’s yard and reportedly attacked him.
In January, when Bissoondyal was arraigned before Justice Jo-Ann Barlow in the Berbice High Court, he entered a guilty plea to the 2021 murder of Pardesi. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after serving 30 years.
Despite efforts of the Guyana Police Force, Isaacs had remained elusive until his recent detention. (G9)