By Leroy Smith

– relatives of deceased cite political interference

AS the police continue their investigation into the murder 18 years ago of Enmore resident, Daniel Singh, relatives of the deceased are concerned whether justice will prevail, even though the suspect is in custody.

And the reason for their anxiety, according to reliable sources, is that checks conducted Monday in the police ‘C’ Division found that key particulars to support the successful prosecution of the suspect are missing. Among those particulars are statements taken from witnesses to the May 21, 2000 chopping to death of Daniel Singh in his yard by the suspect, Deonarine Bhikari, and not Deonarine Singh as was inadvertently reported in Monday’s edition of the Guyana Chronicle.

There is also reason to believe that books which contained diary entries and other vital information pertaining to the matter could not be immediately located by detectives.
What is even more worrying about this investigation is that many of the persons who served in that Division at the time this crime was committed have either retired or gone on to serve in other capacities within the Force, some in senior positions.

On Monday Crime Chief, Assistant Commissioner Paul Williams was asked about the apparent missing pieces of the investigation, and he made it clear that the police will be turning up every possible desk and filing cabinet in the Division in an effort to ensure that everything that is supposed to support this case is located.

There is also a certain position being adopted by detectives in the division as they go forward on this matter, but due to the nature of the investigation and in the interest of allowing the police to do their work unhindered, the Guyana Chronicle will not divulge those details at this point in time.

POLITICAL CLOUT
But on Sunday when this publication interviewed the deceased’s son, he alleged that the reason the man who killed his father managed to remain a fugitive for as long as he did, is because of the political clout the family had and still has.
“… Because his father was affiliated with the then PPP government as the chairman of the Enmore-Hope NDC and the party chairman for Enmore,” Deochan Singh told this publication, “he got his free escape.”

He further stated that it was a very close associate of the same Peoples Progressive Party (PPP), who at one time served as Editor-in-Chief of a certain newspaper, that first showed up in Bhikari’s company right in the same Enmore Village a few weeks ago to attend a funeral.

That former Editor-in Chief also lived in the said community, and reportedly had a close relationship with Bhikari as they were childhood friends.
“My father was affiliated with the PNC and he was affiliated with the PPP,” Singh said, “and due to that aspect, the PPP have covered up everything; the man went away and he took his life to Venezuela.”

The young man said that because of his connection with the present administration, which he supported even while they were in the opposition, solving the death of his father was made harder.

In fact, he said that it was the father of the very suspect who on Sunday took the fugitive of 18 years to see another relative.
When the Guyana Chronicle paid a visit Sunday to the home of the suspect’s sister, where he was arrested, she said that the one person who had all the answers we sought as to what really transpired between the daughter of the deceased and her brother was her mother, and she is now dead.

CLAMMED UP
However, when it was pointed out to her that the apparent relationship the suspect shared with the deceased’s daughter was not the issue at hand but the crime that was committed, the woman clammed up.

But not before maintaining that her brother was innocent of the crime of which he is being accused, and that contrary to what is being said, he was not on the run from the law, as he had long planned to leave the country.

She, however, could not explain her brother’s decision to leave the country illegally.
“To live among these things, it was very painful to know that the PPP was never urged to bring their comrade to justice; knowing what this man has done,” Daniel Singh’s son, Deochan said between tears.

He was ten years old when his father was murdered right before the very eyes of he and his two siblings.