Phagwah outing with friends turned tragic as Dental Assistant drowned

By Royan Abrams

19-year-old Gopaul Govindan of Alness Village, Corentyne left to go swimming with his friends at the Seashore on Sunday (March 12, 2017). However, only his friends were able to make it home.

Reports are that Govindan who is a Dental Assistant went into the water but subsequently, could not be found.

According to the teen’s father, Arjune Govindan, his son left home at about 14:00 hours after being picked up by his friends to go to the Alness Seashore, as is customary on holidays.

Arjune disclosed that approximately two hours after they would’ve left, one of his son’s friend returned and indicated that Gopaul had entered the water and could not be found.

“My son told me that he was going out with his friend about 2:00 and ahm, actually they went out, and at about 4:00 to 4:30, one of them friends run back home and seh that Gopaul gone down in the water he nah show back. So then we went out, me and my wife and my other children, we go out and meet them other friends at the beach. By then, words of the incident start spreading” Arjune told News Room.

According to Arjune, the water was so high that neither he nor anyone at the location could have done anything, but to wait until the water recedes. As the water recedes, he said persons volunteered to search the area, but his son could not be found.

The distraught father said, “we search and pull seine and so, but we couldn’t find him so when the water go way down more, then we decided to search the beach and while searching about a mile, or a mile and a half away we found his body along the shore.”

News Room learned that the teen was not a good swimmer.

He has left to mourn his mother, father, two brothers and a sister.

The body is presently at the Ramoo’s Funeral  Parlour awaiting a post mortem examination.