Remembering Babita Sarjou, seven years on
–as justice is about to be served at last

BABITA Sarjou disappeared into the unknown the night before Diwali in 2010. And, seven years later her skeletal remains were dug up in a shallow grave in the backyard of her ex-husband.
On November 4, 2010, Babita Sarjou left her mother’s home at Timehri, after making arrangements to meet her then spouse, Sharnandand Narine, who would take her to see the motorcade at the Kitty seawall.
She was also to meet her four-year-old son. Sarjou, who reportedly met her husband outside the National Cultural Centre (NCC), entered his car and was never seen or heard from after that night.
But as the years rolled by and the case grew cold, the missing woman’s mother, Champa Seonarine, never gave up hope of getting justice for her daughter; of seeing good triumph over evil.
With this in mind, she sought the help of the Caribbean American Domestic Awareness Organisation (CADVA), and together they pressed relentlessly to have the case re-opened.
And in 2016, they saw a glimmer of hope when Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum, on the receipt of new information, reopened the case. In this instance, it was treated as a homicide.
And, following the new probe into the matter, Sarjou’s estranged husband was further questioned, and subsequently led the investigating team to a shallow grave which had been dug in his own backyard.
Further probing also revealed that Narine had promised one Darel Pronton, a 35-year-old unemployed man from James and Albouys Street, Albouystown a measly $50,000 and a trip to Trinidad if he killed Sarjou.
Within days, the men were charged for the death of Sarjou and are currently on remand for the capital offence.
The Preliminary Inquiry (PI) into Sarjou’s death is coming to an end before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan, with Narine and Pronton expected to lead their defence on November 7, 2017.