Bandits armed with guns and cutlasses terrorized two families at Williamsburg Squatting Area, Corentyne on Monday at 9 pm and at 1:45 yesterday morning and made off with almost $3M in jewellery and cash.
Six gunmen stormed the home of Kawalpattie Persaud, 57, called Indra and beat her about her head and body with a gun and carted off $2.5M worth in gold jewellery and almost $100,000 cash. The woman’s head was burst in the process and she had to be treated by a doctor the same night.
Her daughter Parbattie Sukhra, 33, also known as Navita who was visiting from Dundee, Mahaicony, East Coast Demerara, said she was relaxing in a hammock in the yard when she saw the six men. The men also cut the phone line.
She said two of them kept watch at the gate while the other four entered the yard. One of the bandits said to her “don’t scream, we din come to kill, just do as we say.”
She said they stripped her of her two gold chains, two gold rings, and one anklet, all worth $120,000, $47,000 cash, one Nokia cell phone valued $5,000 and a $5,000 Casio watch. She is surprised that they did not rip off her four pairs of gold “baree” earrings from her ears.
According to Sukra, her sister Ramdai Sukra, 31, who lives a few houses away, was about to go home when the bandits entered. But one of the men ordered Ramdai and their 13-year-old nephew Naresh Mohabir along with a friend, Nandkumar Guman, 31, to lie on their stomach as he stood over them with a gun.
Meantime, two other bandits ran upstairs and beat her mother, Kawalpattie Persaud with a gun butt, kicked her in her back and stomach and demanded money. Persaud who had gone to put three grandchildren, who are below 10 years of age, to sleep, handed over $27,000 cash and gold jewellery worth over $2.5M.
The bandits were still not satisfied and kept kicking her while demanding more money. They ransacked the wardrobes, drawers and suitcases but when they did not get any more money they fled. As they were leaving they asked, “Is you name Indra?” She responded yes and they left.
No response from police
Sukra said the neighbours telephoned the police at the Albion and Whim Stations but none of them responded. She said when they visited the Rose Hall Police Outpost to make a report not a policeman was there.
Residents reported that earlier that afternoon they saw a few strange men walking around the area but they did not suspect they were bandits.
In another attack, two masked bandits riding a bicycle barged into the yard of Mahalachme, 60, called Kisten or Chino at around 1:45 am as the family was celebrating a “nine-day”.
The woman said she was resting in her hammock under the house with two male relatives when the men entered. She said they dragged her out of the hammock and put her to sit in a chair and started to beat her about her body with a cutlass.
The men tried to rip a pair of gold jingles worth $60,000 off her hand but she told them she would do it herself. They demanded money but she told them she is a pensioner and did not have any money.
Mahalachme said the music was playing “low” but when the bandits arrived they ordered that it be turned up loud. Residents told this newspaper they awoke to the loud music but thought the occupants had turned up the volume.
The bandits then pushed one of the male relatives who is slightly retarded into a car under the house and told him to stay there.
After that they started to beat the other relative, Arjune Ramjattan, 23, called “Bullu” and stripped him of gold and silver jewellery valued $80,000, including three silver bands, a silver chain and a five pennyweight gold ring.
The men chopped him above his eyes and fired a shot in his direction because he was not getting the ring off his finger fast enough.
“Yuh neck gon come off”
Ramjattan’s sister said the bandits dealt him several blows with a cutlass and held the weapon to his neck and told him “if the ring don’t come off, yuh neck gon come off.”
He was forced to bite his finger until it was badly injured just to get the ring off.
While beating him they kept telling him they would take the old woman into the home where four other occupants were hiding. But his sister felt he used a delaying tactic to prevent them from entering the home. Ramjattan had gone to seek treatment at the doctor when this newspaper visited.
His sister said they beat him so much that he lost consciousness. They removed an 800-watt amplifier worth $90,000. They then fled on their bicycle and fired another shot in the air.
Meantime a woman named Chandra said the men entered her yard and started to shake a window on her daughter’s room in the lower flat. But the window did not open. They then broke two light bulbs and left the place in darkness as they stood on the woman’s bridge for about five minutes.
Her neighbour Babita said when she awoke yesterday morning she saw that her back fence had been broken down by the bandits and a hammock and a pair of slippers were missing from the yard.
