CRIME Chief Wendell Blanhum said yesterday that after the 72-hour period has expired for detaining a criminal suspect in custody, extension of another 72 hours may be granted through application to the High Court.

As such, the suspect who on Sunday confessed to the brutal murder of city businessman, Farouk Ghanie Hamid, still remains in police custody.

That suspect has confessed that he was aided in committing the dastardly act by two accomplices, and the Crime Chief has disclosed that police are hunting for the two accomplices who, up to press time, remain at large.

This publication visited Hamson’s General Store at Lot 116 Regent Street, Georgetown yesterday to gauge Hamid’s reputed wife’s responses – and those of the staff — to the way the case is developing, especially since the woman had once been detained and questioned in relation to Hamid’s homicide. Our reporter was stonewalled, with only one bit of advice coming from the woman and her staff: “Let the police deal with it”.

The body of 56-year-old Farouk Hamid of Lot 97 Collingswood Avenue, Nandy Park, East Bank Demerara was found on the morning of April 16, 2015 in his backyard next to his dog kennel with a stab wound to his chest.

He was allegedly murdered while tending to his dogs on the night before his body was discovered. The body was found by his wife, who had gone to the property after many calls to his phones had gone unanswered.
A post-mortem performed on Hamid’s body had found that the businessman had died as a result of a single stab wound to the chest. Police said that wound had also caused food that had recently been eaten to scatter inside his body as a result of a punctured organ.
Several persons were questioned by the police, including a handyman and a man who had previously been in the employ of the businessman at his Regent Street store.
Hamid was not known to entertain strangers at his home, and was probably killed minutes after he had arrived home from his store by a person or persons he had known.
The murder weapon was found on the premises. (Michel Outridge)