POLICE investigators have confirmed the identities of the couple found dead on Monday afternoon at the Kingston seawall as 19-year-old Kavita Ackloo, called ‘Shevon’, of Cummings Lodge, East Coast Demerara and 18-year-old Ramesh Beharry, called ‘Boy’, of Good Hope, East Coast Demerara.At a staggering rate of 44.2 suicides per 100,000 people (the global average is 16 per 100,000), with Guyana topping the world.

In Ackloo’s family, her grandmother had also committed suicide while her 17-year-old sister attempted suicide earlier this year, but was admitted to the hospital where she revived. Relatives of the couple identified their bodies at the Lyken Funeral Parlour Tuesday evening following media reports.
Ramesh Beharry’s relative identified him after seeing the body on a television newscast while the mother and father of Kavita Ackloo saw a photograph in the daily newspapers and identified her by the clothes she wore. The young man, who worked as a joiner at an East Coast enterprise, was last seen on Monday morning, according to relatives. They maintained that they were unaware of the relationship between the two teens. The mother of Kavita Ackloo said she last saw her daughter Sunday since she had moved out to stay at her father’s residence.

Passersby on the seawall last saw the couple alive at 14:00 hrs Monday in the vicinity of Pegasus Hotel. Police at the crime scene retrieved two receipts from the young man’s pocket. The receipts indicated that he had purchased two items from Caribbean Chemicals Limited on Croal Street.
The bodies were both discovered lying close to each other with bottles of what is believed to be poison nearby.

The young man’s mother, Sanichar Beharry, said her son had never shown any indications of being heartbroken or suffering any form of depression. However, she noted that he was very often seen on his cell phone chatting. Relatives of the youth noted that they were unaware of any relationship he may have shared with Ackloo. However, when Beharry did not return home Monday night, relatives did not express shock since he would usually sleep out. When questioned he would explain that he had been at a friend’s house hanging out.
What alerted the family that something was not right was when Beharry’s boss visited their Good Hope home and inquired about his whereabouts since he did not turn up for work. This caused relatives to tune into the news which gave them the shock of their lives.
The girl’s father, who lives separately from her mother, was devastated by the news, and has told investigators that he does not know the young man. Her mother, Romeela Narine, called ‘Sharda’, has described her daughter as a very quiet and easygoing individual.
The mother of five said her now deceased daughter had started a relationship with Beharry but she could not accept it in fear that it would cause certain problems.
Reflecting on her daughter’s relationship, Narine said with the first relationship her daughter had, she had brought a boy at the house which her step-father owns, and she had warned her against this. However, after that relationship ended and her daughter began working as a salesgirl in the city at Bombay Fashions, she apparently became involved with another young man almost a month ago.
“Is only couple of week ago they started talking on WhatsApp. This is not a long relationship. She moved out from me couple weeks ago to go stay by her father, because I told her I don’t want her brining anybody here because it’s her stepfather’s house and that was not right. I don’t know if she felt so much pressure that she had to drink it (poison) or why she drink it; she never said anything that would cause this,” she related.
When questioned if any other member of the family had also committed suicide, Narine said her grandmother had done so. “And imagine Shevon said to me she could never do something like that (drink poison) because this world got too much man. So you can imagine how I feel when I saw the newspapers.”