Suspect claims he consumed poisonous substance

SUDESH Lakeram reportedly told police investigators and doctors that he’d consumed a poisonous substance after murdering his former reputed wife, 23-year-old Rajkumarie Persaud at her Hague, West Coast Demerara apartment Sunday morning.

The Guyana Chronicle was on Monday informed that Lakeram, who was handed over to the police by his employer on Sunday, after he fled to his East Bank Demerara workplace after committing the act, reported that he drank poison.
When investigators from the West Demerara Division arrived at the Providence Police Station to escort him from there, he was taken to the West Demerara Regional Hospital for a medical check-up.
Police sources have since confirmed that doctors have flushed out the man’s stomach and declared that he is out of danger, but that they need him to remain at the hospital where his condition can be monitored.
Police, however, were trying to have the man out of the facility and into their custody so that they can proceed with taking statements and sending the file to the Director of Public Prosecutions for advice. The file also would have to contain the report of a post-mortem examination that is expected to be performed today.
On Sunday, Lakeram reportedly stabbed the mother-of-one several times about the body in her one-bedroom apartment hours after he had showed up there seeking to rekindle a relationship which the woman had severed.
They were seeing each other for about eight months before they had a break-up. According to relatives, the reason for the break-up was not known, since the couple never really spoke with persons about their relationship. On Sunday the woman’s aunt responded to her screams and subsequently discovered that her niece was lying in a pool of blood even as the suspect was seen fleeing the area.
Lakeram worked as a dental technician at an East Bank Demerara Dental Clinic and it was there that he fled and confessed to his employer who turned him over to the police. The matter is still being investigated.

(By Leroy Smith)