Amidst conflicting reports…
INDRAWATTIE Bholadass, 49, of Coconut Dam, Cane Grove, East Coast Demerara, was a housewife whose health deteriorated about a year and a half ago.
She suffered from hypertension and diabetes and, during the period of her illness, she was taken care of by her husband of 28 years, Rampertab Bholadass, 55, a labourer. But her life ended earlier this month at Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH), where she had been a patient for a few days.
However, after her relatives claimed that she was the victim of domestic abuse, her husband was arrested but released when a post mortem examination revealed that she died of a heart attack.
He said he was re-arrested after being freed following initial investigations but since had to post $20,000 station bail and even now is required to report to Mahaica Police Station, also on the East Coast Demerara.
He said she was conveyed to the health institution by her relatives after they were told that she had collapsed following two violent falls at home while trying to bathe in the yard and suffered a fractured hip, four broken ribs and multiple injuries elsewhere on her body.
Her relatives had alleged that the woman’s death was the result of a beating inflicted on her by her husband and that it was a constant feature in their home.
At her funeral, the relatives started what turned out to be a bitter verbal exchange, causing Police to be summoned when it was time to inter the deceased at the burial ground.
Her husband told the Guyana Chronicle that, last March 2, they were at home but he left to go to a nearby shop after urging his wife to take a bath.
The man said, on his return, he was informed by his niece, Michelle, that his wife had suffered a fall while trying to bathe.
Consequently, he carried his wife into the house and placed her on the floor, where she complained of a pain in her stomach and of feeling unwell.
He said she also said her head was “swinging” and caused her to fall and hit herself and he showed this newspaper the spot where she reportedly fell and damaged a wooden fence.
He said, however, that she had fallen a second time in the wooden bathroom located in the yard and he telephoned his daughter, Omawattie, asking her to take her mother to the hospital.
Bholadass said he was unable to accompany the injured woman because he had to report for duty at his workplace.
She was treated at Mahaicony Hospital and sent away after being given some tablets to treat her blood sugar and pressure which had skyrocketed.
Bholadass said, later that evening, he was at work when his wife’s relatives took her, again, to Mahaicony Hospital, where she was admitted after her condition worsened and she was groaning but could not speak.

SOME QUARRELS
She was later transferred to the GPH where she succumbed but the man maintained that he never struck his wife, although, in their 28 years marriage, they had some quarrels.
He said, after she became sick, he was the one who did all the household chores, including the cooking, before going to work.
Bholadass said he did not ill-treat his wife.
“I never starved or beat my wife and we lived a good life and produced two daughters,” he stated.
The older sister of the dead woman, Chan Ramcharitar, of Saywah, Cane Grove, recalled that she received a telephone call from another sibling, informing her of the death.
She said her sister never told them she was a victim of domestic abuse but often left her home whenever she was involved in a quarrel there.
She said her sister would visit their mother and stay for a few days before returning to her own home.
Ramcharitar said, when she saw her sister’s corpse she was shocked by the black and blue marks all over it, including on her breasts, stomach, hip and back.
Some neighbours, who requested anonymity, said they never saw Bholadass strike his wife but heard them quarrelling after she suffered a nervous breakdown and was often in ill health.
They said Bholadass was tasked with the household chores after his daughters left his home with their husbands and he had to look after his wife and his nine-year-old niece, Michelle, whom he adopted a few years ago when her mother passed away.
The neighbours said they did not see his wife fall but heard a loud commotion at the house the day her relatives arrived to take her to hospital and they learnt of her death shortly after.