Family still waits for justice

The incident occurred on April 12, 2012, the same day they celebrated their 59th wedding anniversary .

Indra succumbed to her injuries two days later at Port-of Spain General hospital. A year later, Sugrim died, of what his children are calling, a broken heart as he grieved deeply for his dead wife .

The couple lived at Calcutta Road No 4 off the Southern Main Road in Freeport. At the time of the attack, they had just returned from Chaguanas where Sugrim visited a doctor. They had also just cashed their pension cheques. Sugrim was beaten while his wife was battered into unconsciousness. An autopsy confirmed Indra died from massive injuries to her head which included a fractured skull. She was a mother of six .

Draupadi Gangabissoon yesterday told Newsday she and her sisters think of their mother and the manner in which she died, every day. Added to their pain is the fact that her killer has not been arrested .

“At that age, you would expect your parent to die from an illness or accident. My mother had the life beaten out of her by a person who remains at large. Each day, for the past five years, I wonder if this monster will ever be caught,” Draupadi said. She described her mother’s killer as a “monster” and said if he has any conscience at all, to come forward. A CrimeStoppers reward of $100,000 remains unclaimed .

“We must bring this perpetrator to justice. When will the government get their act together and start bringing these criminals to justice .

Since my mother’s death, Trinidad’s murder statistic has been rising at a ridiculous rate with no decrease in sight. Only yesterday, in the Portof- Spain Division, three murders were committed .

Draupadi recalled that in 2015, she and her sister Saroj traveled to India, taking their parents’ ashes to the Ganges River where they performed a ritual known as Pinda Daan for them. “Our father died the year after our mother’s murder .

While doctors said he died of old age, I believe he died of a broken heart. Life without his wife, was not worth anything to him,” she said .

She is hopeful that five years on, some form of justice could still be had. “In our fight for justice, we must fight to have cold cases like my mother’s, which perhaps might be sitting on someone’s desk collecting dust, reopened. Let’s try to balance the scales of justice in Trinidad,” Draupadi said .

“Even if you cannot aid in respect to my mother’s murder, other crimes can be solved if people would just come forward and contact the authorities,” she added .