Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

Po­lice are in­ves­ti­gat­ing the cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing the death of a 63-year-old Bar­rack­pore man who re­port­ed­ly fell from a co­conut tree.

As in­ves­ti­ga­tors await the re­sults of an au­top­sy on Ramesh Lal­be­har­ry at the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre, po­lice have clas­si­fied his death as un­nat­ur­al.

Lal­be­har­ry, a fa­ther of two and grand­fa­ther of four, was lim­ing with his wife, Nim­mi, his son Bran­don, 40, and oth­er rel­a­tives at their Has­sanali Trace home on New Year’s Day.

In an in­ter­view with re­porters at the fam­i­ly’s home yes­ter­day, Bran­don said they were drink­ing White Oak and lim­ing when his fa­ther left the group.

“He was tak­ing long, so I went to see what was go­ing on. I see him on the ground.”

Bran­don said that to­geth­er with his cousin, they lift­ed Lal­be­har­ry and placed him in a ham­mock. He added that his fa­ther did not com­plain of pain and had no vis­i­ble in­juries.

“He was nor­mal, we didn’t see noth­ing be­cause every­body was drink­ing, he didn’t com­plain, and nor­mal­ly he does rest, and with­in a day he does re­vive and do his stuff.”

Bran­don said he lat­er left his par­ents at home and went to a bar.

Ac­cord­ing to Bran­don, when he re­turned home on Fri­day, his moth­er told him that his fa­ther had been rolling in the yard be­cause he was in­tox­i­cat­ed.

His moth­er said Lal­be­har­ry stum­bled and hit his head a few times while she was try­ing to get him in­side.

How­ev­er, Bran­don said his fa­ther lat­er be­gan com­plain­ing of pain and “wasn’t look­ing good,” but they were un­able to get trans­port to take him to the hos­pi­tal.

He said on Sat­ur­day morn­ing he called an am­bu­lance, but af­ter some time, a friend took his fa­ther to the hos­pi­tal.

Deny­ing al­le­ga­tions against him, Bran­don said he loves and cares for his par­ents.

“I had a close re­la­tion­ship with my fa­ther. We drink to­geth­er. We lime to­geth­er. We al­ways hap­py to­geth­er.”

Bar­rack­pore po­lice are con­tin­u­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions.