| Despite the hiccups in the investigations regarding the widely publicised murder of bank employee SheemaSHEEMA MANGARMangar, her mother Radica Thakoor still believes that the police can solve the case “if only a little more effort and compassion are employed”.Speaking to this newspaper yesterday, amidst the controversy that surrounds the analysis of hair and clothing samples, the woman said that while she has been frustrated at times, investigators could for once, “do something right for your country” and bring the perpetrator(s) to justice.Sheema Mangar was killed in September 2010 when she was run over by a car in which a man who had snatched her cellular phone was escaping.The police processed two cars that were suspected to have been involved in the matter and items found on the vehicles were submitted to the Forensic Laboratory for analysis by Crime Scene Investigators.These samples were to be eventually sent to Barbados for DNA analysis. But what followed resulted in a lot of confusion and mistrust between the dead woman’s mother and the Police Force.Thakoor was disturbed when she learnt that a portion of the samples was not taken to Barbados after all although she was repeatedly informed by senior police officials that they were sent.But the police in a detailed press release explained that during October 2010, the Officer in-charge of the Forensic Laboratory was instructed to take the samples to the Barbados Police Forensic Laboratory for analysis.Theystated that the officer did go to Barbados with the exhibits recovered from the crime scene during October 2010, and officials of the Barbados Police Forensic Laboratory had indicated to him that they would have completed the analysis by January 2011.According to the Police, enquiries revealed that the Officer had not submitted the hair to the Barbados Police Forensic Laboratory as it had been left behind.The hair was subsequently submitted to the Barbados’ Police Forensic Laboratory for analysis during August 2011 and the Guyana Police Force is awaiting the results.The procedures with a view to disciplinary action are being taken against the Officer concerned.But Radica Thakoor told this newspaper that in November 2010, during a meeting with Police Commissioner Henry Greene, Crime Chief Seelall Persaud and Commander George Vyphuis, she and her husband were told that the samples were sent.“All the time I was thinking that the samples had left when they told me so in 2010,” Thakoor said.RADICA THAKOORThe Crime Chief acknowledged this, but informed that at that time they were of that impression.According to Thakoor, the first sign that things would not be as they should, was when the police requested additional samples when she had already submitted some.“In October 2010 I had given them samples and they called back for more,” she said.Since then she has been told repeatedly that the samples had not been returned.This year she decided to press the matter more forcefully.On January 10, last, she filed a complaint with the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), and was given an audience. Thakoor said that she was told that the samples were never sent overseas, and that she should check with the Crime Chief.“His secretary said that the samples were sent. I went back to the DPP and told her what I was told and she said that according to her file, the samples were not sent. She said that she don’t know who is lying,” Thakoor stated.She told this newspaper that she subsequently met with Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee, who told her that the laboratory where the samples were sent, was “out for three months” and promised to keep checking.“I get cold sweat when I now reading in the papers that the samples were not sent. I spend so much energy on this matter. Whole year I deh behind this matter and they (police) telling me all kinds of things. It shocked me to know that the authorities just lie to me. These people took an oath to protect and serve, but to me it’s all about fame and power, they don’t look at poor people,” Thakoor said.But the police force is insisting that it is misleading to suggest that they had been lying to the dead woman’s mother.“In this instance the article accuses the “Police Top Brass” of lying to the public, the media, and to Sheema Mangar’s family on the issue of the samples being taken to Barbados for analysis, when in fact the police officials had been truthful and correct,” the police stated.But the dead bank employee’s mother is not deterred by the stance taken by the police, since she believes that it is her right to speak out if she feels that her daughter’s matter is not being handled the way it should.“She stood up for her phone, which was her right, so why must I give up my right to press the authorities to act correctly in this matter,” Thakoor said.She opined that this case could serve to show how the ordinary citizens are treated in Guyana,NBA Jerseys Store, adding that she has written to President Donald Ramotar and the Acting Commissioner of Police Leroy Brumell, but has received no response as yet.Thakoor is convinced that the police know who her daughter’s killer is.“If they have a heart, I believe they will solve this matter. If they lose their child, they will feel how I feel. They are not just police officers, they are fathers. They go home to a family too. I feel it’s not just the samples only, if they truly want to solve this they can,” Thakoor told this newspaper. |
