Bartica murders and multi-million-dollar robbery…
… says witnesses reluctant to talk
COMMISSIONER of Police Henry Greene said persons in Bartica are reluctant to come forward with evidence in the slaughter of two businessmen – Ramdeo Deonarine, called Prakash, of Ruby, East Bank Essequibo and Jainarine Raghubar, of Fairfield, Essequibo Coast – in the mining community last weekend.
But the Commissioner revealed at a press conference held at Police Headquarters yesterday that one person so far is in custody for the crime as the investigations continue.
Reports are that the men were last seen at a party at a venue known as ‘the Gardens’ community sometime after midnight on Saturday. According to reports, they left the scene for their home (the house that they occupy when in Bartica to transact business) located a few corners away and were ambushed there.
Persons at the scene said the gold dealers, who would travel to ply their trade at Bartica, had huge sums of cash at the party on Saturday evening.
Greene said the murder of the two men at Bartica has sent shockwaves through the mining community. “We empathize with their families at this time. Our information is that about 11:30 hrs on Sunday,  a young lady went to visit Ramdeo Deonarine, who is her friend. When she arrived there, she saw the door was open and she entered only to find the bodies of these two men downstairs. She raised an alarm and Police responded to the scene,” the Police Commissioner said.
According to the Commissioner, the Police found Ramdeo Deonarine and Jainarine Raghubar on the floor in the kitchen, downstairs. The Commissioner said the building in which the bodies were found is owned by Ricky Ramnarine.
“Ricky Ramnarine has a business downstairs. He has an office there. There is another office in the same building which is also run by Ramdeo Deonarine…downstairs,” the Commissioner said while describing the layout of the property. He said that there is an inner stairway that leads to a bedroom. “If a person comes to the house they have to force [their way] to get upstairs to the one bedroom. Our understanding is that one person was asleep inside while the other person was asleep on a mattress on the floor outside the bedroom. Deonarine has the keys to the building and he would regularly go there,” said the Commissioner.
“According to Ricky Ramnarine, Deonarine is his friend and he has given him that place to use where he buys and sells gold. The other man, Jainarine Raghubar, he went up there on Saturday; Deonarine on Friday. They met with the owner and he said that he left them some time around midnight on Saturday night and he went home (where he lives with his family at Seventh Avenue Bartica),” Greene related.
“Subsequently, at 11:35 hrs on Sunday, these two bodies were found tied up, bound and gagged, throats slit. There were several marks of violence, other marks on Deonarine’s body which may suggest that there may have been some attempt at torturing. We can’t confirm that but the marks and injuries do look as though – far from just slashing him – he had (received) cuts on various parts of his body, apparently to make him talk about something,” said Greene.
According to the Police Commissioner, Ricky Ramnarine said his office was broken into and the $1.3 million in cash, 100 ounces of raw gold, two laptop computers, his .32 Taurus pistol and six rounds along with a Rolex wristwatch were all “stolen from his office”.
“We are not sure what monies these two men had in their possession. Deonarine does business there all the time and he is supposed to be a licensed holder of a firearm. We did not find any firearm so we suspect that Deonarine’s firearm may also have been stolen,” the Commissioner said.
He pointed out that Raghubar had been a business associate of Deonarine’s for a number of years.
The Post Mortem conducted found that the men died from hemorrhage and shock due to incise wounds to the neck.
“We have uplifted prints from the scene and we have arrested one person so far based on some amount of suspicion. We have received information that persons of questionable character were seen leaving hurriedly and had been seen earlier in the area. They were seen leaving Bartica the next morning, [one of them] with a very bulky bag,” the Commissioner said. “One of those persons has been arrested and we are looking for some others…but we don’t have any eyewitness or did anyone see or hear anything,” the Commissioner of Police concluded.