By Alva Solomon

JILTED Route 40 minibus driver Uttanpad Sewnaraine, called “Umesh” or “Paddy”, 39, who attacked 29-year-old Selina Ramotar, the mother of one of his children, in a stabbing frenzy on Saturday night, has declared that he had intended to kill the woman at the scene.He was reportedly arrested on Saturday night at Ramotar’s parents’ David Street, Kitty home, after he had stabbed her multiple times about her body. Hospitalised in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Georgetown Public Hospital, she was, on Monday, recovering from her injuries there.

Persons at the scene said the man attacked the woman after a brief conversation he had with her shortly after she had returned home and was walking through the side entrance to the house. The woman’s siblings said she and another sister had moments earlier returned home after buying dinner when the incident occurred.
Her sister was walking towards the family’s house when she looked back and saw the man ‘punching’ her sister.

According to the woman’s sibling, the assailant was in fact stabbing her sister, and several young men who were in the vicinity went to her rescue.
The man dropped the knife after he was confronted, and he was later tied up by the men.

“He told them that they could do whatever they want to do because he done kill she, and that is what he said he went there to do,” Ramotar’s sibling told this publication.

She said the man stabbed her sister in the region of her chest, legs and arms, and the injured woman was in a semi-conscious state on Monday and was unable to move one of her hands, which was severely cut.

Recollecting on her sister’s relationship with the man, the woman noted that the minibus driver had struck up a relationship with her sister some 10 years ago, at which time her sister was unaware that the suspect was married and had children. He lives on Sheriff Street, Georgetown, she said.

She said that her sister had already borne a child for the man when she was informed that he was married. Sometime later, the affair became an “on and off” exercise, as her sister lost interest in the relationship.

She said the man would hit her sister at times, and the woman decided last year to cut all ties with him. This development put the man in a state of jealousy, but he was still allowed to visit the family to see his daughter.
Thus on Saturday evening, when the man appeared at her mother’s home, “We took it for nothing, because he would come and see the child.” However, the man’s bloody attack has left the family in a state of shock.

The suspect’s immediate relatives have made attempts over the weekend to visit the injured Ramotar, but her family has since requested the GPHC to ensure that security staffers prohibit any of the suspect’s relatives from venturing near her bed.

Police investigators visited Ramotar following the incident, and are expected to take a statement from her when her condition improves. The 39-year-old suspect remains in custody.