Police hunt ‘persons of interest’ in Golconda schoolboy’s murder

Black Immigrant Daily News

The content originally appeared on: Trinidad and Tobago Newsday

Videsh Dookran,15, a student of Ste Madeleine Secondary School killed. –

FOUR days after the gruesome murder of schoolboy Videsh Dookran, police have identified people who may be “of interest” in the case, but no arrests have been made to date.

Police are also investigating any possible link to gangs, as the profile of a Facebook account bearing the same name and spelling as Dookran was updated in October 2021 with an image of “G-City Movement Est 2012.”

There is only one other photo on this page, of men dressed in Muslim garb, carrying large guns. There is a message on the image which reads “6 willing 9 killing 9,” a moon and star image on a green background, as well as the number 100.

On Monday, Dookran’s relative Curt Seebaran told Newsday Dookran had not been involved in anything illegal – neither guns, drugs or gangs.

His grandmother Salisha Seebaran also attested to his being a good child who was very helpful and would do favours for anyone who asked.

Relatives said his mother Devika Seebaran identified his body at the Forensic Science Centre on Monday, but a date for an autopsy is yet to be determined.

Police discovered the body of Dookran, 15, stuffed inside an outhouse at the back of a pluck shop at Golconda between Saturday night and Sunday morning.

Police said an anonymous female caller told them of the homicide and when PC’s Balgobin and Matloo responded, found his body stuffed into the latrine. His broken legs were sticking out, his cousin said on Monday.

He also said when the police came to her Church Street home at Golconda on Sunday morning to inform her of his death, they showed his mother a photograph of his body with chop wounds to his head and face. It is believed he was also shot in the chest.

Relatives want to know the identity of the woman who called the police, and urged her to tell the police what she knows about this brutal murder.

Dookran had left the home of relatives in the area around 2 pm to take a meal for another relative and meet up with friends. The Form Three Ste Madeleine Secondary school student never returned.

His grandmother said he had been temporarily suspended and was due to return to school on Monday of this week.

Homicide Region III is continuing investigations.

The brutal murder has caught the attention of the International Women’s Resource Network (IWRN) director Adriana Sandrine Isaac-Rattan, who questioned whether Dookran’s death was a case of systemic failure.

In a statement on Tuesday, Isaac-Rattan said, “The IWRN is deeply saddened by the gruesome murder of yet another youngster…

“Whilst we are still investigating to determine if Dookran’s murder was linked to his suspension, it should be noted that the IWRN is on record as stating that suspension in the absence of proper psychosocial follow-up and related counselling is useless, as suspended students return into the same space more than likely with the same mindset.

“Additionally, the causal factors of the suspension would emerge again once the student returns to school and no action (is) taken.”

IWRN repeated its call for the Ministry of Education to identify creative strategies to discipline children.

It said 2022 was coming to an end “and as a country, we cannot continue doing the same thing repeatedly, and expect optimal results which are in the best interest of the nation’s children.

The organisation also told parents and guardians that in-depth and continuous engagement with children, to understand their challenges and support needed to address those challenges, is critically important, and if done in a timely manner, can mitigate loss of life.

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