Man on warpath for wife's killer

TAKEN into police custody for three days, after an autopsy revealed his wife, Sherry Ann Ablack-Maharaj, was beaten, strangled and then hanged at her Penal home two Fridays ago, her husband Khemchand Maharaj is now on the warpath to find his wife’s killer. San Fernando Homicide detectives released Maharaj, 35, on Thursday and on Friday he walked into Newsday’s South Offices overcome with grief. Both Maharaj and wife Sherry Ann were alone that fateful night at their July Branch Trace home when the incident occurred. Their children, Vashti, six, and Shasti, five, had been staying at their mother’s parents’ home. Police are contending that marks of violence on the mother’s face and eyes point to murder and whoever committed the act, tried to camouflage the killing by making it look like a suicide. Maharaj told police that around 10 pm, he found Sherry Ann hanging from a piece of rope attached to the couple’s hammock. On Monday morning, Homicide detectives handcuffed Maharaj inside the Forensic Sciences Centre minutes after pathologist Dr Hughvon de Vignes conducted a forensic examination of the body.

Maharaj told Newsday he was transported from Port-of-Spain to Penal Police Station where he was questioned about the death. Late Monday evening, he said detectives arrived at the station and escorted him to Marabella Police Station. He said he was interrogated then taken to Mon Repos Police Station. Maharaj said he spent three nights at the Marabella Police Station. Maharaj said detectives refused to take him to the funeral of his wife Sherry Ann which took place at her mother’s home at Goodman Trace, Penal. “Instead, the day of the funeral, they took me to my house and asked me to give an account of my whereabouts Friday and how I wake up to see she hanging,” Maharaj said. Maharaj said he and his wife were on good terms and had no grouses. He said he went to bed that night while she sat in the living room. He woke up, Maharaj said, and saw her hanging. “I just want people to stop blaming me; I hearing all kinds of things. On Thursday  police released me and say I free to go now,” Maharaj, who is unemployed, told Newsday. He said he wanted to make public his side of the story. Asked why would anyone want his wife dead, Maharaj said: “We never had any enemies, but she did complain to me a few times about someone following her,” Maharaj said.