Shock and horror gripped a San Fernando community yesterday, after the bodies of Khemraj Maharaj and Mahase Motilal were discovered embracing each other with their eyebrows shaved off, their bodies tied together with rope and electrical tape on their faces.
What was mysterious about their deaths was that their bodies had no marks of violence or signs of poisoning.
But an autopsy by Dr Valery Alexandrov at the Forensic Science Centre, St James, yesterday showed that both men died from something they drank. Alexandrov said it may not be homicide or suicide, as whatever killed them was not lanate, paraquat or gramoxone. Blood, bile and urine samples were sent for analysis to determine what the men consumed. He said both men were chronic drinkers and died around the same time. The autopsy also found that they both consumed rice and vegetables around the same time.
Maharaj, 51, a handyman and Motilal, 46, a PH taxi driver, were described by residents as “rum buddies” who always hung out together. Confused, the residents stood in a persistent drizzle outside the Las Vegas Recreation Club, Tarouba, hoping to get answers as to what happened.
A report stated that Marabella police were on patrol around 6 am when they saw the men lying at the side of the bar. They called out to the men but got no response. It was only when the officers checked they realised the men were dead. Pieces of electrical tape were placed under their noses, seeming to mimic a moustache and a piece of rope was attached to loops on both of their pants. The rope was believed to have been cut from a political banner that hung over the area where the men were last seen liming.
Residents said both Maharaj and Motilal were liming with a group of men obliquely opposite the club up to 9 pm Thursday and were in high spirits.
Maharaj’s brother, Adesh, said no one knew what happened after the lime. Although residents said the men were friends, Adesh said he did not know Motilal. His wife, Lena, said they only got a call yesterday morning and later found the men dead.
“We really do not know what happened. He is not the kind of person to get into fights with anyone, he just drinks and lime there. Everyone knows him; it was not like he was a bad person so it is shocking to us. Up to 9 o’clock last night, he was there,” Lena said.
Motilal’s brother, Vishnu, said he saw the men liming by the club around 8 pm and everything appeared to be normal.
“We are baffled by this, but anyhow you take it, it has to be a murder. I am so confused about this whole situation because he was in a good frame of mind,” Vishnu said.
Standing outside their Tarouba Road home, Vishnu said he did not know how to break the news to their parents, Sookdaye Motilal, 73, and Motilal Maharaj, 74, who both are ailing.