Doctor beaten to death

Police said nothing was stolen. Maharajh was rushed to the San Fernando General Hospital where he died an hour and a half later.

Maharajh, 60, a physician, became the first person to be murdered in South Trinidad in the new year. He is the country’s 18th murder victim.

Homicide detectives believe the intruders confronted Maharajh in his home on the corner of Penitence and Chacon Streets in an attempt to steal the victim’s gun. Maharajh’s common-law-wife, Sumatie Elan, found him lying unconscious and face down on the floor at about 1 pm yesterday. Police said Maharajh’s head, back, hands, chest, feet and buttocks were covered with blue-black marks. Police said the bruises on the doctor’s wrists have led them to believe that the intruders tied Maharajh, bound his hands with wire, and beat him brutally. The marks on the body, police said, may have been inflicted by a blunt object.

A distraught Elan told police that she left her husband asleep at home at 7 am yesterday and went to the gym. Elan, who works at her husband’s business place on High Street, reported that she then went to the mall on High Street.

Maharajh did not show up for work yesterday, and Elan tried to telephone him at home but got no answer. Shortly after midday, Elan went to the house and found Maharajh sprawled across the floor. Police investigators yesterday said they seized an empty—gun magazine, but were unable to confirm if it was from Maharajh’s gun. The house was not ransacked, police said.

The killing was the third tragedy suffered by the Maharajh family within the past ten months.

Last March, Maharajh’s mother, Mina, died just days before two of the family’s commercial buildings in San Fernando were gutted by fire. As word of the murder spread among the business community in San Fernando yesterday, Sharma, San Fernando Mayor Ian Atherly and councillor Carol Cuffy Dowlat gathered at the doctor’s house.

Describing Maharajh’s death as horrible, Sharma said he had no idea why someone would want to murder his cousin. Saying that the Manning administration is unable to manage the crime situation, Sharma said, "stop playing politics. We need to bring all the stakeholders together to help in controlling crime in the country." Expressing his condolences to the Maharajh family, Atherly said the city of San Fernando had lost a good and resourceful person. Saying that the crime situation in the southern city was moderate, Atherly expressed optimism that detectives in San Fernando would solve the doctor’s murder.

Head of the Southern Police Division, Snr Supt Nadir Mohammed, and ASPs Terry Archibald, Ruthven Paul and a party of homicide detectives visited the scene.

Investigations are continuing.