Shas­tri Boodan

& Rhon­dor Dowlat

Po­lice of­fi­cers held a Venezue­lan mi­grant for ques­tion­ing in con­nec­tion with the mur­der of 60-year-old Stephen Sookhan, mere hours af­ter the in­ci­dent oc­curred.

ASP Dipc­hand, of the Cen­tral Di­vi­sion, said in­ves­ti­ga­tors had re­viewed footage which showed the man, aged 21 and de­scribed as a per­son of in­ter­est, was seen flee­ing the scene on Wednes­day night.

Po­lice said Sookhan’s throat was slit at his Well­spring Dri­ve, Oa­sis Gar­dens, Ch­agua­nas home.

At 10.50 pm, a neigh­bour called her hus­band, who is a po­lice of­fi­cer, telling him that she had heard a loud noise at Sookhan’s house.

When the of­fi­cer ar­rived around 11 pm, he an­nounced that he was a po­lice of­fi­cer and en­tered the house, where he found Sookhan dead in a bed­room.

Sookhan’s feet were bound and he al­so had in­juries to the head.

Sookhan was a mar­ket­ing man­ag­er.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors said while ini­tial­ly they sus­pect­ed the mur­der was a home in­va­sion, they have ruled that out.

Se­nior Supt Gavin Si­mon said while rob­bery may be a mo­tive, since items were stolen from the house, they are al­so ex­plor­ing oth­er the­o­ries.

Ch­agua­nas May­or Faaiq Mo­hammed said Sookhan’s mur­der shows the shock­ing and ram­pant crime wave sweep­ing through com­mu­ni­ties.

“Cit­i­zens are liv­ing un­der siege, gripped by fear and help­less­ness, while those in pow­er sit idly by, seem­ing­ly con­tent with the sta­tus quo. The Gov­ern­ment’s glar­ing in­ac­tion sug­gests a trou­bling in­dif­fer­ence to the dai­ly re­al­i­ties faced by or­di­nary peo­ple. With 24-hour se­cu­ri­ty at their dis­pos­al, it ap­pears they are more than hap­py to turn a blind eye to the blood­shed and law­less­ness plagu­ing our streets.

“This bla­tant dis­re­gard for pub­lic safe­ty is not just neg­li­gence, it’s a dere­lic­tion of du­ty that be­trays the trust of every cit­i­zen. The cur­rent state of af­fairs is in­tol­er­a­ble, and im­me­di­ate, de­ci­sive ac­tion is not just ex­pect­ed but de­mand­ed by a pop­u­lace tired of liv­ing in con­stant fear,” the may­or said.

Homi­cide South is prob­ing the in­ci­dent.