LAUTOKA philanthropist and businessman Narayan Reddy has described the discovery of the body of a homeless man by police officers early yesterday morning as “a sad event”.
“I was on my way to work about 5.15am when I saw the homeless man lying on the footpath near the Naviti St lights,” he said.
“I thought he was sleeping because he is a well-known man around Lautoka and he was lying on cardboard.
“When I drove past again about 5.30am, I saw a group of police officers standing over him and they had placed a piece of cardboard over his body.
“This poor man has been sleeping at the Lautoka Bus Terminal for some years now.
“We have tried to help him but what people like him need is a more structured rehabilitation program where they are taken to a home and cleaned up and given some kind of real assistance.
“It is very unfortunate that someone like him, who has relatives somewhere, is living like this on the streets and when something like this happens, they are just quietly laid to rest somewhere.”
Questions sent to police on the discovery of the homeless man’s body remain unanswered when this edition went to press.
