Boy badly hurt after beating with mop handle

A SEVEN-year-old Princes Town boy is in serious condition at hospital after being brutally beaten with a mop handle, allegedly by a close relative. Vinode Singh, a Standard One pupil of Jordon Hill Presbyterian, underwent emergency surgery at the San Fernando General Hospital and was admitted to Ward 5. He is on oxygen and drips. The police told Sunday Newsday a 49-year-old man is being questioned about the incident According to reports, shortly after 3 pm last Wednesday, Vinode and a relative were  at the child’s Borden Narve Village home. Vinode’s elder brother Nadeem, 11, came home and Vinode allowed him to use the telephone. The relative allegedly became enraged and struck Vinode several times about his body with a mop handle.

When Vinode’s mother, Savitri Deosaran, arrived home a short time later, the boy complained of severe abdominal pains and began vomiting. He was rushed to the hospital where he underwent emergency surgery. Speaking to Sunday Newsday from her son’s hospital bed yesterday, Savitri, a  domestic worker, said she was not at home and did not know what had happened to her son. She said when she spoke to her son on Wednesday night, he told her he slipped and fell in school. Deosaran said on Wednesday at around 4.05 pm she returned home and saw a relative in the gallery.

“I ask him if he now come home and he say yes. I asked for Vinode and he say he in his bedroom to go and ask him what happen,” Deosaran recalled. She said the relative told her Vinode was using the telephone. “Apparently my other son gave Vinode a number to call for him,” she added. Deosaran said when she asked Vinode who he was calling, he said he was calling his father and then he said he was calling her. “When I tell him to dial the number he did not even know the number,” she said. Soon after, Vinode started to cry and complained about abdominal pains. “He fall flat on the ground holding his belly and he start vomiting.” Cpl Harrigin of the Princes Town CID is continuing investigations.