NINE months after her son was shot dead during a marijuana eradication exercise in the Cuche/Charuma forest, Radica Maharaj-Persad is still asking for answers.

Constable Anil Persad was among a team of officers involved in the forest exercise north of Rio Claro on May 12, 2011. Investigators were told Persad was shot once when three men caught guarding a marijuana plantation opened fire on the officers.

"My son's death seems to be forgotten by everyone—the police and the politicians—but I didn't forget. I am not going to sit and let them forget about him. I am a mother and I want to know what happened to my child," she said.

Maharaj-Persad, of San Pedro Village, near Rio Claro, said Government ministers promised a State funeral for her dead son, but she received no funds.

"I used up all the little savings I had. They said it would be a State funeral, but I didn't get one cent. Now I have to struggle to make ends meet. Anil was the sole breadwinner in the family, now I am trying hard to get by," she said.

Maharaj-Persad said senior officers have stopped visiting her home. "They don't come any more. The holidays gone and not an officer came. I don't know what is happening with the investigations, I know nothing," she said.

Maharaj-Persad has filed a complaint with the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) hoping that its chairman Gillian Lucky can find the truth. But to date she has not been contacted.

"I will not rest until I know the truth behind my son's death. I need a full investigation into what happened in that forest. The stories just don't add up. I need to know the truth," she said.

Two suspects, Teeleckchand Arjoon, 46, and Jagdeo Seecharan, 47, were shot in the head and body and died at the scene. A third suspect escaped and was never found.

Persad remained in the forest until a Ministry of National Security helicopter arrived two and a half hours later. He died on arrival at the San Fernando General Hospital. An autopsy found he bled to death.

Maharaj-Persad called on Minister of National Security, John Sandy, and Commissioner of Police, Dwayne Gibbs, to meet her family and discuss the status of the investigations. "I even went to the prime minister's constituency office to try to meet her, but she wasn't there. Someone else spoke to me and said he knew about the case," she said.

Maharaj-Persad said she would welcome any probe— even a coroner's inquest—into the shooting death of her son.

Investigators said yesterday that enquiries were continuing into Persad's death.

As part of the probe, nine police officers were taken into the Cuche/Charuma forest to recreate the alleged shootout between them and the marijuana planters that ended in Persad's death. The forest visit was based on the statements given by the officers and on forensic tests of the service weapons fired during the alleged shootout.

The Express understands that a file has been submitted to the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.