Just a week after welcoming his 12th child, a Princes Town father was murdered in a roadside attack near his mother’s home on Sunday night.
Forty-year-old Sherwin Balkaran, of Malgretoute Village, collapsed at the corner of Railway Road and M1 Tasker Road, after being stabbed in the neck during an argument.
Police said around 5.30 pm, Balkaran was chatting outside a shop with two men when an argument broke out. One of the men pulled a knife and slashed him before both suspects fled, leaving him bleeding on the ground.
A passerby later found him and alerted police. Officers discovered him dead at the scene. Crime scene investigators retrieved evidence, and homicide detectives interviewed several witnesses.
At their home yesterday, Balkaran’s 12-year-old daughter said she wept as she recalled waiting for him to return.
“I was waiting for him to come home, but he didn’t, and I really cried when I got the news,” she said.
Balkaran’s father, Prakash, struggled to contain his grief.
“The last time I saw him was about two days ago. He went out to work, and from work they dropped him around here, and he went by his mother, and they sliced his throat,” Prakash said.
He added that Balkaran worked with him as a vehicle straightener but would sometimes take up labourer jobs at construction sites.
“He went to mix concrete out there, and when he went down by his mother, like they were waiting on him, and they held him there, and that was it. He was a good fellow. He worked hard to mind his children, and he now has a newborn baby.”
Prakash lamented that his son never made it to his mother’s home. He said he did not know of any issues between his son and others in the area but admitted his mind turned to drugs and illegal activity when he heard about the murder. With the children’s mother unemployed, Prakash vowed to step in and help raise his grandchildren.
Balkaran’s younger brother, Simeon, said he only heard that his sibling had gone “by The Line” and was stunned when the news of his death was confirmed.
“I thought they were talking madness, but it is really shocking,” Simeon said.
While Simeon admitted his brother was often troublesome, he described him as strong but misguided, someone who tried his best despite his flaws.
“He was troublesome, but he tried. He was even trying to get me a job after I finished university.”
