THE mother and daughter who were allegedly fed a poisonous substance on Monday at their Lot 59 Second Street Marty’s Ville, Mon Repos East Coast Demerara home, are listed as stable at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation.

A 57-year-old taxi driver and father of three, Balkaran Persaud, ended his life after allegedly forcing his wife and daughter to ingest the toxic substance. When a neighbour rushed over, the man, woman and their child showed signs of suspected poisoning.

On Tuesday, his wife, 35-year-old Kavita Persaud could not speak properly as her entire mouth was swollen while her three-year-old daughter Saraswattie Persaud is recovering. Relatives and neighbours said the taxi driver and his wife separated approximately six months ago and he would usually take care of his three children on his own. The woman had moved out of the house and lived a short distance away. He had frequently grumbled about his wife not taking care of the family and himself properly and would instead be more inclined to partying and drinking with friends.

One relative said, “he does complain to me that this girl don’t cook for him and he child and does torment he and do all sort of things to stress him out.” Neighbours said the woman, who lived a short distance away, would show up at the house in the morning to get the child ready for school and would leave the child at a neighbour’s house.

Persaud would then take the child to school. Relatives said that the man’s first wife died, seven years ago. He subsequently moved on with Kavita and had another daughter. Reports indicated that, at the time of the act on Monday, two of Balkaran’s daughters from a previous marriage were staying at a relative, after visiting over the weekend.

His sister, Brenda Persaud, said no one knew exactly what happened but he had a very troubled relationship. She explained that one of the major problems the couple had was over one of the daughters from the previous marriage who was psychically challenged. “She is not well and the step mother would just put a cup and plate outside and lock the door on her when the father goes to work, this was a major problem,” the sister said.