Coconut man smokes, then hangs himself

INSTEAD of giving in to his mother’s sorrowful pleas, a 34-year-old coconut climber calmly smoked a cigarrette and then hanged himself from a chennette tree yesterday morning. Relatives of Balkaran Ramlal were in the dark as to why he would want to commit suicide. Ramlal’s brother, Balram said his brother got into a fight at a bike show in the village on  Friday night. He said the men chased Ramlal, who hid in a neighbour’s yard and later got a lift to his home at Poonah Road, Williamsville. Balram said their mother, Ramdai, saw him climbing a chennette tree at the back of her house and went to see what he was doing. “He tell my mother he going and smoke a cigarrette and then hang himself. After he light the cigarrette, he throw the match for she. My mother beg him to come down, but he refuse.”

Balram, nicknamed “Whistle,” said his mother called him around 12.15 am and when he arrived there, Ramlal told him, “Whistle when I dead tonight put a 20 piece (marijuana) and 12 sheet ah paper in meh casket.” Those were the last words his brother said before he jumped. Admitting his brother was highly intoxicated that night, Balram insisted he had no idea why Ramlal killed himself. “He lived by himself and had no children. My mother used to cook for him. I don’t know why he do this,” Balram said. A district medical officer viewed the body and ordered its removal to the mortuary at the San Fernando General Hospital, where an autopsy will be performed tomorrow. Acting Cpl Dookeran of the Gasparillo Police Station is continuing investigations.