BHOPAL Singh, 39 years, of Cromarty, Corentyne Coast recently had the misfortune of being brutally beaten by three men who broke into his duck and fowl pen around midnight on October 26 and stole all twelve of his birds.

The men had been ‘drinking’ and ‘smoking’ during the night and felt that they wanted something to eat, so they stole his birds and decided to make a cook.
Bhopal recalled he was in the bottom flat of his home watching television and the door was open. A telephone call from his sister who lives nearby, alerted him to the fact that four men were raiding his fowl pen. He promptly got up and rushed out but when he arrived all he found was the empty pen with its door broken down.
He said that knowing the trend in the village, he decided to ‘check out’ a particular house. When he arrived at the house he saw four men he recognised. Three were imbibing alcohol and the fourth was busy ‘plucking’ one of his (Bhopal’s) ducks in preparation for cooking.
He confronted them and the men, incensed that he had interrupted a planned ‘duck curry’, snatched him and gave him a sound thrashing. Bhopal suffered a broken left arm and injuries to his head. A neighbour took him to Port Mourant Hospital and he was later transferred to the New Amsterdam Hospital.
But when he thought that his woes had ended with the thrashing, he had another surprise. He was treated on arriving at the New Amsterdam Hospital, and a piece of Plaster of Paris placed on his hand. However, he claimed the health care provider did not ‘set’ the hand before strapping it, but gave him a date, three weeks from the time of examination, to report to the Georgetown Public Hospital to have the hand attended to.
“I do not see the merit in this. I got my hand broken since October 26 and had to wait until November 21st to get it set and placed in cast. That is unbelievable,” Bhopal said. He is currently warded at the Georgetown Public Hospital.

(Shirley Thomas)