Father dies after attack during SEA celebration outing

SASCHA WIL­SON

Se­nior Re­porter

A fa­ther of two suc­cumbed to his in­juries last night af­ter be­ing se­vere­ly beat­en in Friend­ship Vil­lage, San Fer­nan­do.

A male rel­a­tive of mur­dered school­girl Mari­ah Seenath, al­so from the same com­mu­ni­ty, has been de­tained in con­nec­tion with the killing.

The vic­tim, Ra­jku­mar Pope, had stopped by a shop on his way home around 6.30 pm to pur­chase bread.

In the car were his wife, An­nie, their two chil­dren, aged 11 and 17, and his sis­ter-in-law, whom he had just picked up from Gulf City Mall.

They were cel­e­brat­ing their daugh­ter, who wrote the Sec­ondary En­trance Ex­am­i­na­tion.

As Pope en­tered the shop, the sus­pect grabbed his neck and be­gan punch­ing him in the head.

Pope fought back, and a scuf­fle en­sued. Pope’s wife and the sus­pect’s fa­ther in­ter­vened and sep­a­rat­ed them.

Pope’s eyes were swollen, and he com­plained of se­vere head pains.

When they got home, they called the po­lice and para­medics.

While para­medics treat­ed him at home, blood be­gan flow­ing from his mouth and nose. He was rushed to the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal, where he died af­ter 9 pm.

Pope was em­ployed at the En­gi­neer­ing De­part­ment of the Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture.

Of­fi­cers of the Homi­cide Bu­reau, Re­gion 3, are con­tin­u­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions.