Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of a Berbice labourer.
Seeram Khemraj also called “Blackie”
Dead is 37-year-old Seeram Khemraj also called “Blackie” of Lot 611 Katcha Street Bath Settlement, West Coast Berbice (WCB), Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice). His body was fished out of a canal adjacent to Number 27 Village, WCB, on Thursday morning.
This newspaper was told that Khemraj left home on Monday for the backdam where he and another labourer had gone to work with a rice farmer.
The dead man’s sister, Tina, told this publication that on Wednesday afternoon they received a message stating that he had drowned.
According to her, the family was told that Khemraj was working on one side of a canal at Tiger Island and the other individual was on the other side. She said that according to the information they received, Khemraj had finished his task and had attempted to cross the canal to assist his friend.
She said that the family was told that one eyewitness claimed that she saw him with his hands above his head in the middle of the canal as he disappeared beneath the murky water and resurfaced a few times before going out of sight. The eyewitness reported seeing him earlier with a cutlass in his hand.
An alarm was raised and a search party found his cutlass but not him.
On Thursday a search party which included Police officers returned to the area and Khemraj’s body was seen floating in the canal. The body is currently at the Fort Wellington Hospital awaiting a post-mortem examination. An investigation has been launched.
