Son refused permission to attend father’s funeral

JAILED drug trafficker Deochan Ramdhanie has been refused permission by prison authorities to leave the Maximum Security Prison (MSP), Golden Grove, Arouca, where he is serving a life sentence, to attend the funeral of his father, Mantoor.

But it was a defiant Ramdhanie, who from MSP yesterday, instructed his attorneys not to allow relatives to proceed with his father’s cremation until he (Deochan) saw his father’s face. Both father and son were convicted of drug trafficking in 1998 and sentenced to life imprisonment by a High Court judge. A total of $3.3 million was confiscated by the State from the Ramdhanies under the Dangerous Drugs Act. Mantoor, 59, died last Thursday after feeling ill at the Frederick Street, Port-of-Spain prison.

Prison authorities told Newsday yesterday that the security risk was “too high” to facilitate the transport of Ramdhanie all the way to Icacos to attend his father’s funeral service. Relatives had tentatively fixed the funeral and cremation at the Mosquito Creek (according to Hindu rites), for tomorrow. However, Ramdhanie is demanding from the prison authorities that he at least be given an opportunity to view his father’s face at the funeral home where the body is being kept. Newsday was told that Ramdhanie had asked his mother, who visited him at MSP yesterday, not to cremate his father until he (Deochan) got one last opportunity to see his father’s face. Ramdhanie and his father were kept at the Frederick Street prison, but the younger Ramdhanie was recently moved to MSP.

Attorneys of Lincoln Chambers, Port-of-Spain, wrote National Security Minister Howard Chin Lee and the Commissioner of Prison, requesting that Ramdhanie be given the opportunity to attend the funeral service. Attorney Mark Seepersad of the law firm told Newsday yesterday that based on discussions with prison authorities, it seemed hardly likely the request would be granted.  Seepersad, attorney Gerald Ramdeen, Ramdhanie’s mother and an uncle, visited Ramdhanie at the MSP yesterday to break the news. Newsday learned that Ramdhanie became extremely distraught when he learnt his request for leave to attend the funeral was denied.

Ramdeen told Newsday yesterday that Ramdhanie then gave his attorneys instructions that his father was is not to be cremated unless he (Deochan) sees his face at the funeral home. “Yes, he gave us instructions that his father is not to be cremated unless he (Deochan) sees his face. We will be returning to the prison today to make that request,” Ramdeen said. Newsday learned that authorities are not taking any chance with Ramdhanie having to leave the confines of the MSP. This was in the context of his escape in 1998 from the Princes Town Magistrate’s Court to the Venezuelan mainland.