Senior Reporter
sascha.wilson@guardian.co.tt
A day after his daughter was almost murdered by her ex-husband, a South Oropouche father called on men to walk away from failed relationships and stop abusing women.
“I find men real abusing women in situations like this, ... just walk away,” said Basdeo Rajgobin during an interview at his South Oropouche home before he left to visit his daughter, Anissa Rajgobin-Ageemoolar, at the San Fernando General Hospital yesterday.
Rajgobin noted that he also had a failed marriage, but he moved on with his life and took care of his children. Rajgobin-Ageemoolar went to General Accident Insurance at the Cross Crossing Shopping Centre in San Fernando on Monday to renew her vehicle insurance. Police said her ex-husband Sharaz Ageemoolar followed her into the office and asked to speak to her outside. When she refused, he shot her two times near her shoulder.
He ran outside and tried to enter a parked white Tiida. Rosario Ramdhan was sitting in the back seat. Police said Ramdhan’s relative, Kenton Moses, who owns the car, was inside the insurance office. Moses ran outside and tried to grab Ageemoolar, but Ageemoolar discharged the gun, hitting Ramdhan, who stumbled out of the vehicle and died.
Ageemoolar escaped in the car but was found dead in the same car in La Romain hours later, in what police believe was a suicide.
Rajgobin said Ageemoolar was abusive and ill-treated his daughter during their 28 years of marriage, but his daughter never reported the abuse to the police.
“I never expected that a human being would do such a thing like that,” he lamented.
Wiping away tears, Rajgobin said Ageemoolar eventually asked his daughter for a divorce, and the paperwork is in the final stages.
He recalled that his daughter moved in with him about four to five months ago while her two sons, who are in their 20s, remained with their father. The father said his home was recently firebombed and then shot at, but he did not know who was responsible. Fortunately, neither he nor his daughter was injured.
Expressing condolences to Ramdhan’s family, he said, “I really, really sorry for that family.”
Recalling that fateful morning, he said when his daughter was leaving home to go to the insurance company, “something tell me to pray for her”.
He asked God to protect her.
“I came out by the gate and I started to pray for her,” the father said.
When he saw her on the hospital bed after she got shot, he prayed for her to survive.
“I told her not to talk. I just hold her hand and I started to pray for her,” he said.
Rajgobin-Ageemoolar was in critical condition up to yesterday.
Ramdhan’s father, Ramnarine Ramdhan, told reporters that his son had planned to migrate with his girlfriend, but he was unsuccessful in securing a US visa.
A relative told Guardian Media that Ramdhan’s brother was murdered in 2018.
Ramdhan’s father, Ramnarine Ramdhan told reporters that his son had planned to migrate with his girlfriend, but he was unsuccessful in securing a US visa.
A relative told Guardian Media that Ramdhan’s brother was murdered in 2018.
