STARING at the two pink lines, Priya Mohanie Ramdin couldn’t wait to share the news with her partner Roopesh Rajkumar.
It was a moment that they had both longed for from the moment they met, but little did Priya know it would also be the thing to tear them apart.
Priya Mohanie Ramdin was waiting for her daughter Riya (pictured together) to come home on her 11th birthday when she received devastating news
Riya had been spending the day with her dad Roopesh Rajkumar
Rajkumar (pictured with Riya) shot his daughter in the back of the head before turning the gun on himself
As soon as Priya shared the news that she was pregnant Rajkumar darkened, switching from an aspiring to a reluctant father.
Priya says: “If he hadn’t been our little girl Riya’s father I would have cut Roopesh Rajkumar out of my life for good.”
Keen for her adored daughter Riya to have her dad in her life, Priya allowed Rajkumar contact – but little did she know the devastation her kind gesture would cause.
‘Day of mourning’
On 14th February 2009, both Riya and Priya’s joint , Priya dropped her daughter at her dad’s house with no idea it would be the last time she saw her alive.
Recalling the final moments she had with her girl, Priya says: “On the morning of her birthday she was so excited.
“We went and got our nails done together, she asked me to curl her hair and I helped her pick out some clothes for her day with her daddy.
“As I dropped her with Roopesh, she jumped out the car in an excited rush.
“She looked so pretty, and I remember thinking she was growing up too fast.”
But what was meant to be a day of celebration turned into devastation as vengeful Rajkumar callously shot his daughter in the back of his head before turning the gun on himself.
Sixteen years on, Priya, now 46, is still battling unimaginable grief. “My birthday now is a day of and tears. Riya’s always on my mind,” she says.
“Sometimes I see a pretty hair accessory and think, ‘Oh, I must get that for Riya’, then it hits me like a truck. She’s gone. I’ll never buy her another hair band, never see that pretty little smile again.
‘So much hate’
“Like any dad Roopesh’s job was to protect our daughter, instead, he her, to spite me.
“How can a father have so much hate he’ll kill his own child?”
Priya was working as a makeup artist in , Canada, when she first met Rajkumar.
She recalls: “My job kept me busy and I liked seeing friends and family.
“I didn’t need a man to make me feel complete but after a while we ”
Things progressed quickly and Priya was 28 when she fell pregnant in 1997.
“That’s when I saw a different side to Roopesh,” she says. “He told me he wouldn’t pay child support and didn’t want anything to do with our baby.
“But I didn’t want his money so I dumped him, stopped taking his calls and moved home.”
‘Just you and me’
Priya welcomed her daughter Riya on her birthday and Valentine’s Day on 14th February 1998.
She says: “I snuggled her after the birth and told her it was going to be just she and I.”
But while Rajkumar had initially been reluctant to be involved in Riya’s life, he soon changed his mind.
Priya says: “One day I was getting out of my car when Roopesh pulled up alongside.
Both Priya and Riya share the same birthday, a day that Priya now says is marred by grief
Priya says she was totally happy being a single mum to Riya
Her relationship with Rajkumar was on and off but she decided to end things when he became verbally abusive but had no problem with him being a dad
“He told me that I was keeping Riya from him and he was going to get lawyers involved to get full custody.
“I wasn’t scared of Roopesh’s feeble threats as there was no way he could prove I was an unfit mum.
“But I didn’t want any drama and I wanted Riya to have a dad so I agreed he could see her.”
Priya says that, despite her reservations, Rajkumar was a good dad.
‘He was a good dad’
“He fell in love with Riya,” she says. “He took her to the park and the zoo and would do anything for her and I liked that she had that male influence in her life.”
Over time Priya and Rajkumar began to rekindle their relationship too, eventually getting back together. But things soon turned sour.
Priya says: “He wanted me to move back in but I wanted to keep my independence.
I was convinced Roopesh was trying to drive me mad, or one day he’d turn up and kill me
Priya Mohanie Ramdin
“That’s when he’d taunt me spitefully about me having acne or being a single mum.
“It hurt at first, but as time passed I stopped caring, I tolerated him because he was Riya’s dad and he was good with her.
“Fortunately, our differences didn’t affect her, she was a happy little girl, famous for her big smile.”
Priya admits her relationship with Rajkumar continued to be on and off following a pattern of him insulting her and then apologising.
But when Riya was nine-and-a-half, she ended things for good.
She says: “I told him he could see Riya but I didn’t want anything to do with him.
“He wouldn’t let go, called repeatedly, every day and would tell me he had cheated on me throughout the relationship.
“I went to the police but they said there was nothing they could do.
“I was convinced Roopesh was trying to drive me mad, or one day he’d turn up and kill me.
“But he told me he could never hurt me as I was Riya’s mum and even told me he’d brought a ring.
‘She was so excited’
“When I refused he even sent a picture to Riya hoping she would convince me but she told me she didn’t want me to end up with her dad.”
On Valentine’s Day 2019 Priya and Riya were making plans for their shared birthday as Riya turned 11.
Priya says: “Roopesh told me that he wanted to celebrate as a three but I knew he’d spend the entire time trying to lure me back and refused.
“I told him he could take Riya out during the day and I’d take her for dinner in the evening. She was so excited.”
Priya dropped her daughter off at Rajkumar’s that morning with the agreement that he would call that afternoon to let her know what time he would bring Riya back.
Where to seek grief support
Need professional help with grief?
- Child Bereavement UK Childbereavementuk.org
- Cruse Bereavement Cruse.org.uk
- Relate Relate.org.uk
- The Good Grief Trust Thegoodgrieftrust.org
- You can also always speak to your GP if you’re struggling.
You’re Not Alone
Check out these books, podcasts and apps that all expertly navigate grief…
- Griefcast: Cariad Lloyd interviews comedians on this award-winning podcast.
- The Madness Of Grief by Rev Richard Coles (£9.99, W&N): The Strictly fave writes movingly on losing his husband David to alcoholism.
- Terrible, Thanks For Asking: Podcast host Nora McInerny encourages non-celebs to share how they’re really feeling.
- Good Mourning by Sally Douglas and Imogen Carn (£14.99, Murdoch Books): A guide for people who’ve suffered sudden loss, like the authors who both lost their mums.
- Grief Works: Download this for daily meditations and expert tips.
- How To Grieve Like A Champ by Lianna Champ (£3.99, Red Door Press): A book for improving your relationship with death.
But around 5pm Priya still hadn’t heard from him. She called 20 minutes later but Rajkumar didn’t answer.
At around 5:30pm Rajkumar called Priya.
She says: “He told me that I was going to feel the pain and hurt he was feeling for a lifetime and that he and Riya were going to his dad.
“His dad had died three years earlier and initially I couldn’t work out what he was talking about and then it dawned on me.
“I begged him not to hurt Riya and asked if I could speak to her but he told me I would never speak to her again.”
‘Too cowardly for justice’
Frantic, Priya hung up and drove to the local police station and told them she feared Rajkumar was going to hurt Riya.
Officers began searching for Rajkumar, but a few hours later they returned with the news Priya had been dreading. Riya was gone.
Priya recalled: “It took a moment for it to register and then I screamed and collapsed.
“They wouldn’t tell me what Roopesh had done but said he had driven away and then shot himself but incredibly, he was still alive and was in hospital.”
Later officers explained that as Riya entered her father’s home, Rajkumar had walked up behind her and shot her in the back of the head.
Five days later a vigil was held for Riya in the local town square with the clock tower lit up pink to honour her.
Over 100 mourners came to her funeral the next day.
No woman deserves to lose the most precious thing in her life for spurning an inadequate man with a fragile ego
Priya Mohanie Ramdin
“I was devastated,” Priya says. “A police officer had to read my tribute, in which I said she was my best friend, my princess.
“That same day Roopesh, too cowardly to face justice, died in hospital.”
Since losing her daughter, Priya has learnt of other mums who have been through the same hell she has.
She says: “All over the world there are mums like me, grieving because they rejected a man.
“We must get better at spotting these cowards, before they act.
“Because no woman deserves to lose the most precious thing in her life for spurning an inadequate man with a fragile ego.”
Priya says that she ‘screamed and collapsed’ when she learnt of Riya’s death
Since losing her daughter, Priya has learnt of other mums who have been through the same hell she has 
