Wife Honours Husband Five Months After Alleged Murder
Woman still gets calls from mysterious man who calls her by name only known to husband
It has been five months since that fateful incident in Lautoka. A woman, whose husband, a former company executive, who was in the car when it burned on June eight this year, according to Police, relived the night prior to her husband’s alleged murder and charred remains being found in his vehicle in Lautoka.
Yesterday, the family held prayers at their home in Kashmir, Lautoka; a ritual observed by Hindus five months after someone’s death. “I really do not know what is happening with investigations, but I will visit the Police sometimes this week to find out how investigations were going,” Ranjini Devi said yesterday. Police spokesperson Ana Naisoro said investigations into the case were still on-going. Salesh Chand was the former regional manager for Vinod Patel.
Ms Devi said she was still living the pain of not knowing where the investigations into her husband death were heading. But, she has been receiving phone calls after his death for some time. The calls were made from a mobile phone number 9685027, by a male caller and each time the man called he sounded intoxicated. The man initially said his name was Raju and was living in Rakiraki. Lately he said he was living in Waiyavi in Lautoka and was in the Republic of the Military Forces. Ms Devi said the most worrying aspect for her in regards to the calls was that the person was using a name only her husband called her by. “Only my late husband used to call me by that name, which was my home name,” she said without revealing what the name was. “It’s frightening because he knows that name and has asked me not to get married again because he wanted me,” she said. “I have reported the matter to the Police, but nothing has been done,” she said. Meanwhile, Ms Devi said her husband was too drunk to drive the night he left their home in his company vehicle.
Their son, Ravnil, 16, a student at Tilak High School said his father came from Rakiraki that night on June 7 with two co-workers from Rakiraki, a man and a woman. He said at around 1.30am, his father was on the porch of their house. He was drunk and kept falling while trying to stand up. “My father sat in the passenger’s seat while the man drove the car and they left.” Mrs Devi said after some time she became anxious. At around 2.37am, she called her husband’s mobile phone. “He answered and said he was coming back from Ba.” However the most baffling part was that the car was seen already burning at around 3am at the Fiji Sugar Corporation’s Lautoka mill yard. Ravnil said his mother did not leave the house but slept. Sometime later, the male worker arrived with some other people in a car. They came and slept. Mrs Devi said she asked the coworker where her husband was and he said Mr Chand told him he was going to Ba. “My father was too drunk to even stand up so how come he was driving?” Ravnil said. “The next morning the Police arrived and took both of them away for questioning,” Mrs Devi said.
“But that is the last I have actually heard anything about the investigation apart from a team of Police officers who came to my work place and said they were from Suva and were asking about the incident.”
While the Fiji Sun was there yesterday, a call was made to the number left by the female Police officer from Suva and she told Mrs Devi that an Inspector Manoa was heading the investigations.
For Mrs Devi, there were still a lot of questions still unanswered questions about the events of that night prior to her husband’s death. Police Commissioner Brigadier-General Stiveni Qiliho said on July 7 that police had some leads on the case and investigations were continuing.