Two armed men staged a daring early morning robbery in New Amsterdam yesterday, shooting and injuring the postmaster of the Nigg (Corentyne) Post Office and escaping with some $8.2 million and the postmaster’s car.
Postmaster Kishore Sewlall, 39, suffered a gunshot wound to the pelvic area and is currently in a critical but stable condition at the New Amsterdam Hospital.
In carrying out their daring robbery, the bandits tossed Sewlall and the postmaster of the New Amsterdam Post Office out of Sewlall’s car, HB 1024, at the corner of Republic Avenue and Alexander Street in New Amsterdam. The car has since been recovered at Vryheid, West Canje.
According to reports, Sewlall was transporting Chief Postmaster of New Amsterdam Gangadhar Munesar, 51, to distribute the cash to the various post offices in East Berbice. The money was to be used to pay pensioners on Tuesday. The two men were alone in the car.
Stabroek News understands that the two postmasters had just left the New Amsterdam Post Office when the incident occurred. According to reports, they had asked for a security guard to escort them but none was available.
This newspaper learnt that the bandits, who were waiting at the head of the street, threw a bicycle in the path of the car, forcing it to stop. One of the bandits, who carried a gun tried to force Sewlall out of the car, while the other unarmed bandit pulled Munesar out.
Sewlall, a father of two sons aged 13 and 14 years old was apparently attempting to resist the bandit when he was shot.
A source said a police patrol had passed the area just five minutes before the robbery and the police responded within ten minutes. Ranks, including some from the Tactical Service Unit mounted a search for the bandits but came up empty-handed.
When this newspaper visited the post office, Munesar appeared shaken and refused to comment, saying he was not authorized to do so.
Employees were sitting outside the building and one of them told this newspaper she was at work when she “heard a loud noise like a tyre exploded and then I ran out and saw the bandits and I started to scream.”
A resident said she heard two gunshots and she immediately ran for cover, while another woman who was cycling along the road, panicked, threw the bicycle down and lay on the road.
At the hospital, Sewlall’s wife Indira Kumar and other relatives were waiting anxiously for him to come out of theatre.
In tears, the woman said she had not heard exactly what had happened to her husband, but felt relieved when she learnt from the nurses during the midday visit that he was out of danger.
Doctors told this newspaper they were unable to remove the bullet that was lodged in his pelvic area and they listed his condition as critical but stable. They said they would be assessing the man’s condition over a 48-hour period to decide their next move. They said removing the bullet by forceps would have caused further damage.
Meanwhile, policemen scouring the area retrieved Sewlall’s car near the backdam at Vryheid. The money the two postmasters had been transporting, which had been stashed in a box in the trunk of the car, was gone.
