Death at Mahaica Police Station lock-ups… Standard operating procedure may have been breached

Jun 06, 2008 News

Police at the Mahaica Police Station may have breached standard operating procedures and the police Office of Professional Responsibility has launched an investigation into the death of Surendranauth Boojnauth who was found hanging in a cell there last Tuesday.
Boojnauth was pronounced dead at the Georgetown Public Hospital an hour after he was discovered hanging by his belt in the Mahaica Police Station lock-ups.
According to a source, Boojnauth was placed into the lock-ups by ranks who did not ensure that he had removed his belt, which is the standard operating procedure when placing an individual into a cell.
The source explained that before a person is placed into the lock-ups, it must be ensured that he or she does not possess any object that could lead to them harming themselves or any other person.
“Belts and shoe laces along with any sharp or hard object should be removed from the person. This was not done,” the source said.
And compounding the issue, Boojnauth had showed suicidal signs shortly before he was placed into the lock-ups.
Police at the station admitted that there was a breach, but explained that this may have been caused by the number of remand prisoners they had to deal with at the time.
Speaking with this newspaper, a source at Mahaica said that when Boojnauth was detained, he had shown intent of doing something harmful to himself in the presence of his sister Nalini Chowbay.
“He say ‘why y’all don’t tek a rope and hang me?’ I told him to shut up and he accused me of joining with the police. I told him, ‘I don’t have to kill you, if you want, you could do it yourself’,” Nalini Chowbay explained.
It was not too long after that, that Boojnauth who is said to be a drug user hanged himself.
Meanwhile, police ranks have expressed concern over the architecture of several lock-ups which they said could lead to similar circumstances.
They lamented the fact that the lock-ups are fitted with grills which could allow a person with a piece of rope to inflict harm upon himself.
Earlier this year another man was found hanging in his cell at the Enmore Police Outpost.
Last weekend, Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee visited police stations along the East Coast of Demerara.
In an invited comment, the minister told this newspaper that any structure that would facilitate the committing of suicide by a prisoner would have to be looked at carefully.
“We do not build lock-ups for people to commit suicide. They are held there until they attend court,” Minister Rohee said.

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Death at Mahaica Police Station lock-ups… Standard operating procedure may have been breached

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