RELATIVES of 20-year-old Ganesh ‘Chris’ Persaud of Strathspey, East Coast Demerara, who was stabbed to death by a bandit during a robbery on Friday, are calling for the resuscitation of the local Community Policing Group (CPG), to aid with crime fighting.

During a visit to the family’s Strathspey house on Saturday by the Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, S.C., relatives aired their dissatisfaction that the once effective CPG was abolished under the previous administration.

There was a consensus among relatives, neighbours and other persons stopping by to offer condolences to the aggrieved Persaud family that while functioning, the CPG played a crucial role in assisting with crime fighting in the locality as thieves were cognizant of its existence, and as a result, were hesitant to commit crimes.

The slain youth’s father, Radesh Persaud and his uncle, Sasenarine Sookram, were all members of the local CPG which was dismantled over two years ago. As part of the CPG, they were armed, and conducted regular patrols throughout the villages.

Sookram said there were a number of incidents which saw the intervention of the CPG, where arrests were made. He highlighted there were even instances where the CPG assisted the Guyana Police Force in responding to alarms which, in turn, caused members of the community to have confidence in the policing group.

A tearful Radesh Persaud bawled: “why did they kill my son?” as he reminisced on the person his son was. He described him as “really good” and “quiet” – sentiments which were shared by several members of the community.

Chris was stabbed to the neck while in the family’s store – Deals on Electronics – by the suspect who wanted his gold chain.
The alleged murderer was identified as 24-year-old Kapildeo Jangadin of Annandale, ECD; he was captured shortly after the incident and the police found the gold chain in his possession.

Chris died at the Dr Balwant Singh’s Hospital in Georgetown while receiving medical attention. He would have celebrated his 21st birthday on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Nandlall, who visited the relatives of the slain youth on Saturday to offer condolences, explained that the resuscitation and modernisation of the CPG is a manifesto promise of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), and the government is desirous of the CPG working alongside the GPF.

“This was a unit that helped with the crime situation right across the country, unfortunately it was dismantled by the previous administration and you are seeing the impact of its non-existence right here in this community,” Nandlall said.

“Perhaps this may not have happened if persons knew that there was a vibrant, active policing group in this area that had access to firearms. I’m not saying that it could have been prevented, but it would have been a deterrent,” Nandlall added.

Nandlall said that the government must now hurry to resuscitate the community policing groups across the country, and equip it with the requisite resources so that it may offer some type of protection to the citizenry of the country.

Administrator of the Ministry of Home Affairs’ Community Policing Groups (CPG), Rishi Das, had told the Guyana Chronicle that as part of resuscitation efforts from January to June, 139 CPG groups were formed, taking the total so far to 225 CPGs, with some 2,215 additional members taking the total membership to 4,225.