Shallow grave found –Skeletal remains believed to be that of Babita Sarjou
Dead: Babita Sarjou
Dead: Babita Sarjou

By Rabindra Rooplall

A MISSING person case quickly turned to homicide as the skeletal remains of a person, believed to be Babita Sarjou who disappeared six years ago, was discovered in the backyard of her reputed husband’s Lot 51 Seaforth Street, Campbellville, Georgetown property on Sunday.

Police had the property under surveillance for days, after arresting Sarjou’s husband, Anand Narine, and his alleged accomplice. On Sunday morning, detectives unearthed a skull, bones, and pieces of clothing from a three-foot-deep grave, having smashed through concrete to access it.

CADVA representative Dianne Madray and Champa Seonarine walking away from the yard where the remains of a person believed to be that of Babita Sarjou were found
CADVA representative Dianne Madray and Champa Seonarine walking away from the yard where the remains of a person believed to be that of Babita Sarjou were found

Narine’s alleged accomplice had led police to the spot, and he was brought to the scene while the remains were extracted. After the evidence was found, sleuths placed the handcuffed duo into a police vehicle and whisked them away. Babita’s now ten-year-old son was peering out the window as police excavated her remains.

On November 4, 2010, Sarjou, 28, left home after telling her mother, Champa Seonarine, that she would be meeting her estranged husband and four-year-old son at the Kitty Seawall to view the annual Diwali motorcade. She was expected to return to her mother’s Timehri, EBD home later that night, but was never seen again.

In an interview with the media, Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum commended the investigators who, after painstaking inquiries, were able to solicit crucial information which led to a breakthrough in the case.

“No longer are we treating this as a missing person (case), it is now a homicide that we are investigating. The remains were found at the back of the house in a shallow grave which was about three feet in depth. So far, we believe that it is the body of Babita Sarjoo,” he disclosed.

DNA TEST
He explained that a DNA test will be done to enable the police to determine with certainty the identity of the skeletal remains.

“We have already obtained samples from the remains, and it will be sent to Trinidad soon, so we can have the case dealt with in an expeditious manner,” he noted.

Underscoring that the police have incriminating evidence against both suspects in custody, the Crime Chief said the police legal advisor has been looking at the case from the initial stage of the investigation, and very soon the police will be able to receive a legal opinion relative to instituting charges against both men.

Questioned about relatives making allegations about the way the police were executing their duties, Blanhum said that if the relatives have an allegation to make against the investigators or the police, such can be channeled through the Police Complaints Authority.

In an interview with the Guyana Chronicle, Champa Seonarine said all her suspicions were on spot, as she had a gut feeling that her daughter was buried inside the yard.

“Since Babita go missing I keep talking this thing. This is not the way Babita should have been gone. Anand got buildings in there which he was renting, and he had my daughter washing loads of bed sheets, and he asked her not to even break a voice to the girls that were in the apartments,” a tearful Seonarine said.

In composite photos: Police escort Sarjou’s husband Anand Narine into a vehicle after carrying him to the spot where he allegedly buried her body. Narine’s alleged accomplice hides his face as he is escorted to the police vehicle after showing the police where the body was buried in a shallow grave (Delano Williams photos)
In composite photos: Police escort Sarjou’s husband Anand Narine into a vehicle
after carrying him to the spot where he allegedly buried her body. Narine’s alleged
accomplice hides his face as he is escorted to the police vehicle after showing
the police where the body was buried in a shallow grave (Delano Williams photos)

She explained that when Babita got married in 2004, she visited her two weeks later and upon her arrival at the home, the gate was padlocked.

Mrs Seonarine said her daughter had to contact Anand to get the gate opened and she suspected something was wrong when he used derogatory remarks in her presence. After that experience, her daughter always complained of having a turbulent relationship.

“When I call his mother to talk about Babita and Anand (with intention) to fix their relationship, the mother said to me on the phone that ‘y’al should see with he, because he get into an accident and he get brain damage, and how he head ain’t good,” the mother lamented.

She said that Anand’s mother knows a lot pertaining to her son’s evil and wicked actions.

“Imagine one of his aunties from Brazil told Babita that there will be many things he will do to her. She didn’t deserve this; if he know they couldn’t have lived (together), he should have left her,” the woman declared.

As it relates to her grandson, who is now ten years old, Mrs Seonarine said she was never allowed to see him. Reflecting on an occasion when she had visited the child’s school just to see him and express her joy, she said the headmistress had allowed the visit, but the child returned home and disclosed to his father that he had seen his grandmother.

“Anand meet Babita and tell her he don’t want nobody going to the school to see (the boy) again because bad things will happen. We had to just give it up. Imagine I tried talking to him February last, but he wouldn’t talk,” she said sadly.

“The family is not one that anybody can trust. These are people you should not keep on earth anymore. I wish they could bring back hanging in Guyana, because is just waste time for the Government to mind dem in prison, and when they come out they doing the same things over and over,” the woman vented.

She stressed that once Anand is found guilty, he should be hanged. Although criticising Police Commissioner, Seelall Persaud, who was the Crime Chief when her daughter disappeared, Mrs Seonarine nevertheless praised the detectives and the Police Force, especially Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum, whom she noted was the real force behind the investigations.

“Now we have a new Government in place, a new Crime Chief, but I don’t have any confidence in the present Commissioner of Police. I want to thank the police and all who put out their work to have justice prevail. They did a good job, especially the Crime Chief Blanhum,” she noted.

On the fateful night that the woman disappeared, family members had attempted to her on her two mobile phones, but they appeared to have been turned off.

Mrs Seonarine said she first informed ranks at the Timehri Police Station about her daughter’s disappearance, then made a similar report at the Kitty Police Station. That led to police detaining and questioning a man and searching his home and septic tank. They had also searched two other homes, but found no trace of the missing woman. Checks with Immigration officials showed no record of her leaving Guyana.

In 2014, police requested DNA samples from Sarjou’s mother after finding the skeletal remains of an unidentified woman on a Berbice foreshore.

Before her disappearance, Sarjou had filed harassment case against her husband, but the matter was subsequently dismissed. Her husband was accused of plastering copies of a nude picture of Sarjou on the fence of her workplace at BK International.

The couple was not together at the time, and according to her mother, it was the fourth time that Sarjou had left her husband, and she had vowed not to return even though he was keeping her son away from her.

The couple was being counselled at the Ministry of Human Services, and Sarjou was told that if she wanted to file for custody of her son, she had to empower herself by being gainfully employed. It was this that drove her to find a job, and for months she had worked at the company, where she was described as a hard worker.

Instead of being embarrassed and cowed into silence, Babita had reported the matter of the nude pictures’ display to the police, leading to them instituting the charge against Narine.

The day Babita disappeared had marked three months since the nude printouts were plastered outside her workplace. Earlier this month, top cop Seelall Persaud and Crime Chief Blanhum met with Champa Seonarine and formally notified her that police had reopened investigations into her daughter’s disappearance.

The Caribbean American Domestic Awareness Organisation (CADVA), a human rights organisation, has been pressing the police to have the Sarjou case reopened. Chief Operations Officer Dianne Madray had criticised the police for the investigation.

“Every little clue they get, the organisation would forward the information to the police,” she said. “When she disappeared, we gave her phone to the police, where she was threatened. We showed them Facebook messages, but none of those things can be found now,” the woman said.

Madray said that CADVA had appealed to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Shalimar Ali- Hack, for assistance. Madray also said she had sent a letter to Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan, and on March 29 last, she received a response.

On Sunday, Madray and a tearful Mrs Seonarine stood on the roadway looking into the yard where the remains believed to be that of Babita were found. In tears, she loudly declared in the direction of Narine’s house, sending a message to his present wife that nothing good would come of their relationship, since only an ill fate lies ahead for him.

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