The tragic saga continues…
– Husband re-arrested, charged with wife’s murder
Family members of Bridgette Gangadin, in the midst of preparing for her cremation yesterday, received a document from her husband, Dwarka Gangadin, which stated that the Central Board of Health, Ministry of Health, had given permission for her cremation to take place today at 13:00 hrs.
Copies of the letter were sent to the Officer-in-Charge of Vigilance Police Station, the Public Health Inspector.
The letter stated that cremation will not take place in the absence of the District Public Health Inspector or the Police Officer.
This move angered relatives of the dead woman who had already made preparations for her cremation yesterday, since most of their relatives were scheduled to leave the country last night.
Bridgette’s uncle, Heeralall Sookdeo, told the Guyana Chronicle that despite all parties agreeing to the cremation yesterday, he, Dwarka, ‘went behind their backs’ and acquired a letter which stated that permission was given for the cremation to take place today.
Mr. Sookdeo said, “That man (Dwarka Gangadin) is spiting the family of his wife and now, even in death, he is tormenting her and making sure her family doesn’t get to say farewell before they leave the country.”
The man even showed this newspaper the cremation site where they had already arranged the materials for the pyre and was forced to cover it up with plastic to prevent it from getting wet by the rain.
Mr. Sookdeo said today is 11 days since Bridgette’s death and they want closure to the matter.
The woman was found on the roadway at Vigilance, East Coast Demerara, on May 2, and the first autopsy, by Dr. Nehaul Singh, established that the mother of three succumbed to a fractured skull and injuries consistent with her head being crushed.
Police, in a previously issued press release, had said they were investigating her suspected murder and had arrested her husband.
However, there were conflicting reports about how the woman met her demise, including one that she jumped from the vehicle which her husband was driving during a quarrel between them, and that he panicked and drove away from the scene after realising that he had, accidentally, run over his wife.
But a second post mortem by Trinidadian Pathologist, Professor Hubert Daisley at the Georgetown Public Hospital mortuary last  Friday,  said the woman was strangled.
Meanwhile, on Saturday, Bridgette’s husband, Dwarka Gangadin, was granted custody of his wife’s remains.
On Monday, during a high court hearing before Justice Rishi Persaud, both parties agreed to be involved in the cremation, which was expected to take place yesterday.