An alcohol-fuelled dispute reportedly over politics turned deadly yesterday morning when a man was attacked and stabbed twice with a garden fork allegedly by his best friend in Preysal Village, Couva.
Harynarine Bansie, 45, nicknamed Broco, of Lower Couva Road, Presyal Village, died in the living room of his friend’s home after being stabbed in the face and neck.
The 61-year-old suspect, a Cepep worker, has been arrested and is being held at the Couva Police Station.
Police inquiries revealed that the two men who were drinking puncheon at the suspect’s home reportedly had a heated argument over Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley whom the suspect referred to in a racially derogatory manner. The suspect then became enraged and allegedly stabbed Bansie in the head and neck.
Police received a report about the incident around 2 am by Vashtie Ramkissoon, 51, who was liming and drinking puncheon with the men at Sesame Street, Santa Clara Road.
Ramkissoon, according to the report, told police sometime after 8 pm the suspect and Bansie, who are both her friends, began arguing when the suspect allegedly stabbed Bansie in the neck and head with the garden fork. She said she ran out of the house and called the police. Police seized the garden fork.
At her home yesterday, Ramkissoon who was in an emotional state did not want to say what the argument was about. “Is rum talk,” she said.
She denied allegations that she and Bansie were in a relationship.
She said the suspect and Bansie were best friends. “He (deceased) was a nice, loving fellah. He was nice and honest.”
Ramkissoon said she intervened and tried to stop them arguing, but they would not listen to her.
She said she left them and took a shower. “When I come back I see him with a fork over Broco. I had to run for my life.” She said she called 999 about a hundred times before she got a response.
At Bansie’s home where he used to live with his parents, ages 68 and 70, his mother was crying.
“He was the apple of her eye, her eyeball,” said his younger sister Nita Nanan.
She said they had warned her brother many times about liming with the suspect but he would say they were his “best friends.”
Nanan admitted her brother had a drinking problem, but she said he was not violent.
“He would never pick a fight. He would walk straight home and sleep,” she said adding that her brother did not deserve to die.
She said her brother helped their mother clean and prepare for Divali, but they will not be having any celebrations.
“We preparing for a wake now,” she said. Bansie was the third of eight children and would have celebrated his birthday on November 18.
An autopsy is expected to be performed tomorrow at the Forensic Science Centre. Investigators will then seek instructions from the Director of Public Prosecutions on whether to charge the suspect.