AN autopsy yesterday performed on the body of Mon Repos shopkeeper, Pooran Lalchand, 59 years, gave the cause of death as perforation of the heart and lungs due to stab wounds, police said.Three persons remain in police custody as investigations continue following the brutal murder of the elderly shopkeeper at his home on Tuesday.

Sleuths told this publication that the two sons of the deceased and a daughter-in-law have since been questioned and are detained at the Beterverwagting Police Station.

The man, who lived alone at Lot 511 Block 8 Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara, was found in the lower flat of his house with stab wounds and an injury to his head.

Investigators said the body bore about six stab wounds believed to be inflicted by a knife just beyond the confectionary shop he operated on the lower flat of his two-storey house.

Relatives of Lalchand were arrested when they showed up at the Beterverwagting Police Station to report that ‘something’ had happened to him.

The police subsequently went to the residence and found the bloodied body in the house and took the woman and the two men in custody for questioning.

It was reported that Lalchand and his relatives were in court over the property and they had reportedly sold the house with him still residing there and he had moved to the High Court to prevent being thrown out of his own house. His wife passed away three years ago.

Police in a press release said at about 10:30 hrs on June 9, 2015, the body of Pooran Lalchand, 59, of Mon Repos, ECD, was found in his house with several suspected stab wounds.

Police said there were no signs of forced entry into the building and whoever committed the homicide was allowed into the place and was known to the victim.

By Michel Outridge