…wants case re-opened

THE relatives of two fishermen who disappeared at sea in September last are still hopeful that the men would be found, and are calling for the police to reopen the investigation into the case.

Samuel Dabideen, the 43-year-old captain of the vessel, and his 23-year-old son Arjohn Persaud, residents of De Willem, West Coast Demerara, are feared dead after their boat capsized at sea in September. Their other two colleagues, who made it to shore alive — 32-year-old Omadatt Basdeo, called “Budha”, of West Coast Demerara; and 35-year-old Mahesh Singh of Cummings Lodge, East Coast Demerara, are blaming each other for their colleagues’ disappearance.

Reports are that the men left on a fishing expedition from the shores of Ruby, East Bank Essequibo, on September 27, 2016. Respective wife and mother of the missing men, Sarita Dass, has said she still dreams of finding her husband and son alive.

“Sometimes I’m studying what they are having to eat, or where they are and if they are okay,” she told the Sunday Chronicle at her home yesterday.

“Sometimes I’m studying what they are having to eat, or where they are and if they are okay.”

She explained that the owner of the vessel claimed that he searched for the two men in the waters off Trinidad and Barbados, but they were not found.

Dass believes that the story given by the survivors is questionable. “The police want to speak with Budha. In the new year, the police should be looking into the case,” she said.

The Maritime Administration Department (MARAD) had assisted in the search for the two fishermen. Relatives were told that the captain and his son had gone missing on September 29. They said they were told that, once on the high sea, Singh was left on the larger vessel to overlook the three men, who ventured out in a smaller boat with a 1,000-pound seine to catch fish.

Singh eventually lost sight of the men, and decided to search the waters with the vessel. He gave up the search two days after the men went missing, and decided to return to Guyana, where he contacted the owner of the vessel and detailed what had occurred.

Basdeo claimed that the boat he and the two others were in capsized, and he swam three miles before reaching the shores of Trinidad, where he sought the assistance of the police and coast guard there.