Lotto cashier burnt to death

RADHA RAMSARAN, a 31-year-old lotto cashier, was doused with gasoline mixed with tar and set on fire while seated in the backseat of a car outside her Surrey Village home in Lopinot around 11.30 pm on Sunday. She died minutes after being pulled from the car by her brother Christopher Kalicharan, 18. Her 26-year-old niece, Sati Singh, who is nine months pregnant, was also burned about her body, while another relative, 22-year-old Prakash Maharaj, received minor burns. The two were treated at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex. The 37-year-old attacker was handed over to the Arouca police shortly after the killing.

He was rushed to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital with burns about his body. Around 1.30 pm yesterday, he was moved to the Intensive Care Unit in critical condition where doctors described his prognosis as poor. At Surrey Village yesterday, relatives of the dead woman expressed shock over the murder. Christopher Kalicharan, who suffered burns about his body while pulling his sister from the car, told Newsday that his sister and others went on a lime on Sunday night. On returning home around 11.30 pm, a male relative ran towards the car in which Radha was seated and began dousing her with the gasoline and tar. 

He then lit a match, setting her on fire. Relative Sati Singh and driver Prakash Maharaj, who both tried to rescue Radha, suffered burns. Christopher said he was alerted to screams coming from outside and, on looking, he saw his sister in a ball of fire. He said that he threw a bucket of water on his sister and then pulled her from the car. While doing so, the flames caught his jersey and he was burnt. The grieving man said his sister’s dying words were, “My body burning real bad, bring some water for me to drink.” She then gasped her last breath. Christopher, 18, said he is still in shock and grief, and never thought that his sister would have died under such brutal circumstances.

A relative, who preferred to remain anonymous, said that on Saturday, a man threatened, in a fit of rage, that he would barbecue someone for the Carnival. The relative said he never thought that the man was hatching a plan to kill Radha. Mother of the dead woman, Rookmin Kalicharan, said she is unable to come to terms with the cruel way in which her daughter was killed. She described Radha as a good person. The man who allegedly murdered her daughter was very close to her family. A party of officers led by Insp Modeste, acting Insp Abraham and Sgt Daniel visited the scene. Police described the death as a murder. Investigations are continuing.