THE decomposed body of a man who was reported missing since June was found in a rice field on the Number 19 Village, Berbice highway on Thursday morning.
The body of Balraj Chaltu, called “Suraj or Raj”, 42, of Warren Village was discovered by a search party on Thursday morning after he was last seen alive on the 29th June 2017. According to the dead man’s sister Savitree Chaltu, Balraj was last seen alive on the 29th June 2017 by persons in the area. A search party was formed for the man and after not finding him for a few days an official missing person’s report was made on the 2nd July 2017.

Speaking via telephone with the Guyana Chronicle from the United States, sister of the dead man, Savitree Chaltu called Leena, said she last heard from her brother on June 18 when she spoke to him for Father’s Day. “I usually talk to him every day, and I talk to him of Father’s Day, but when I stopped hearing from him I became worried and called around to find out if anyone saw him after a few days, but they all told me no; that’s when I realise something may have happened, because even if he usually picks up and go anywhere he come back in two or three days.”

Leena said while she did not hear from him she assumed he had gone out on a trip as he usually does for a few days, but she said she was told he was last seen alive on the 29th by a neighbour. She said her brother who lives alone suffered from epilepsy and was visually impaired which prevents him from getting jobs and earning. As such, he is taken care of by his relatives who resides overseas.
Further, she noted that he had had a bout of malaria sometime back and his neighbour cooks and cleans for him. When quizzed on whether she knows of anyone who would want to hurt her brother, she said no, but noted that he had an incident sometime back in January with someone. “I don’t know if anyone would want to hurt him, but I know he was living home with someone and they had some domestic issues and a restraining order was filed against her.”

Lena further told this publication that a team of seven which included Chaltu’s father, brother and sister along with other relatives had already booked flights to come to Guyana to help with the search for her missing brother. “Seven of us including my mother, sister and brother and some cousins were coming to Guyana on Saturday morning to help search for my brother, but this morning I got the news that they found his body,” the woman told this publication amid sobs. “I was hoping that he was still alive, but they confirmed it was him, nevertheless we are still coming on Saturday to get more details and get to the bottom of how he died.”

Meanwhile, Commander of ‘B’ Division, Ian Amsterdam, said a post- mortem will be conducted to ascertain the cause of death. The commander continued that while the body was badly decomposed and partially eaten by fishes, there were no visible marks of violence at the time of discovery but investigations are ongoing to determine what may have led to the death of Chaltu and the post- mortem would be able to give a clear picture as to how he died. Chaltu was a resident of the United States, however, he was deported in 1996 and had been living at Warren village since then. Police investigations are ongoing.