Arsonists torch 2 Enterprise homes

As piracy massacre retaliation deepens

…in search of “Pumpkin”

Police investigators in the C Division (East Coast Demerara) are now on the hunt for three men who reportedly barged into an Enterprise, ECD house and set it alight on Friday afternoon.
The two storey wooden and concrete house owned by 30-year-old Vickram Sookraj was set alight at about 12:30h.
It is being reported that three men arrived in a silver car. Two of the men exited the vehicle, entered the yard and asked for the whereabouts of someone named “Pumpkin”.
Rajputtie Sookraj, sister of the owner of the house, who was at home with a minor child, said the men approached her and asked for the individual for whom they were looking.
She told Guyana Times that she told the men no one by that name lived at that house.
The two men then proceeded to walk up the stairs leading to the upper flat of the house and one of them entered.
The woman said shortly after, the said man exited the house and returned to the lower flat, telling her “I did just want to make certain that he wasn’t here”, before they both re-entered the vehicle and drove away.
Shortly after the men left, smoke was seen emanating from the building. As such, the woman quickly exited the house with the child and the fire service was summoned.
When the Guyana Fire Service arrived, they battled the blaze but by the time the fire was contained, the house was already destroyed.
According to Rajputtie Sookraj, she would not be able to identify the men and the vehicle if she saw them or it again.
“The thing happened so fast, I wouldn’t be able to point them out, but I know that I never saw them before,” the angered woman relayed.
This publication spoke to the owner of the house who had just returned from sea to find his house on fire.
The visibly distraught man said “I went on the river and not too long I came back and see the house on fire. I went out on the sea for a number of days”.
He further related that his wife, along with his baby, were at hospital since Thursday, since the child is unwell.
However, Sookraj explained that inspection made by neighbours revealed that the fire started in the middle room in the upper flat of the house.
“The fire start in the middle room them seh. Them tell me that three negro bai come and ask for some “Pumpkin” that they think live here but I don’t know anybody named “Pumpkin”, Sookraj posited.
The seaman estimated his losses to be in the millions, while noting that both he and his sister had a lot of furniture in their house. Sookraj is calling on the authorities to quickly bring the perpetrators to justice as he and his family are now left homeless.
Meanwhile at about 19:00h on Friday evening the same three men struck again in the very street burning another home.
Guyana Times was told that the men returned to the community and again enquired about the whereabouts of “Pumpkin.
This publication understands that “Pumpkin” is linked to the recent piracy massacre in Suriname. A source close to the investigation told this newspaper that investigators are working on a theory that the search for “Pumpkin” and the torching of the homes are in retaliation over the piracy attack.
Investigators up to press time had made no arrest but are continuing their manhunt for the three perpetrators.