A Corentyne, Berbice, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) housewife is alleging she was beaten with a baton by Police at the Number 51 Police Station on Tuesday night. She is also accusing the officers of stealing $100,000 from her.
Takurdai Jugnanand told Guyana Times on Wednesday that a group of Police Officers went to her Lot 73 Number 52 Village home on Tuesday and requested that she go to the Springlands Police Station. She said she did not leave with them but rather made her own way to the station with her 15-year-old son. According to Jugnanand, when she arrived at the station, there was a report by a driver of the car that she travelled in earlier in the day, stating that he left a cellphone in the back seat of the car and she picked it up. According to the woman, she was not given a chance to say anything, but she was told to stand against a wall. This, she told Guyana Times, was after she and her son were made to sit on a
Takurdai Jugnanand
bench for two hours.
The mother of four explained that after being told to stand and face the wall she thought that the officer was going to carry out a body search to see if she had the cellular phone on her person.
“I feel one lash on my shoulder and I start to holla and when I go to turn around I feel another lash on the other and I turn around and ask him “why you beating me, I aint do you anything,” and then he take the baton and lash me on my right knee and then lash me again on the knee…”
In recounting the ordea,l Jagnanand said the Police Officer asked her to give him the cellphone.
The woman is also claiming that her teenage son was questioned without her being present. More so, she said her son was slapped by an officer.
According to Jugnanand, the officer took her bag and began to search it. She said she had $100,000 in the bag and the officer took the money and told her that had to be the cash she received after selling the phone.
However, according to the housewife, the officer put the money into his pocket and promised to give it back to her when she was leaving. Jugnanand said she was made to sign two blank pieces of paper in order to secure her release. According to her, one of the officers at the station assisted her to take the teenager out of the station compound and she took a car home.
At home she telephoned the Whim Police Station and asked for the officer in charge to make a report but was told that she would have to go to the station.
She said on Wednesday morning she was there at 08:00h and after waiting until 12:30h, she left to seek medical attention. The 45-year-old woman said officers at the Whim Police Station refused to give her a medical form to take to the hospital. She said one was however given to her when she went to Central Police Station. The woman has since been seen by a doctor at the New Amsterdam Hospital. In tears, Jugnanand told Guyana Times that she wants to get her money back which the family saved for her husband’s eye surgery but was going to be used instead for her son’s urgent medical bills. (Andrew Carmichael)
