Two gun-toting bandits on Tuesday night robbed a Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo family of over $200,000 in cash and jewellery before escaping in a waiting car.
Bholanauth Ganeshram and his wife Rajdai Ganeshram said the bandits also threatened to shoot them during the five-minute incident. Rajdai called ‘Babita’ told Stabroek News yesterday that the incident occurred at about 7:15 pm on Tuesday night.
She recounted that she, her husband and their 15-year-old son were in their tiny shop at the front of their yard when the two men came up. She stated that one came to the counter, pointed his gun at them and told them not to move. His accomplice, in the meantime, ran to the back of the shop and entered. The gunmen, both of who were wearing toques low over their forehead ordered the trio to lie facedown on the floor while they searched them.
From Bholanauth’s wallet, they took US$100, $5000 in local currency and stripped him of his gold chain worth over $100,000 while placing a cloth over his head so he could not see. One forced Rajdai into the house while the other remained in the shop with her husband. “They tell me they gon shoot me son if me nah give them everything”, the still shaken woman recalled. Her daughter was in the home at the time but the bandit apparently did not see her.
The bandit forced her to empty some bags and grabbed $58,000 which represented the day’s sales. He also relieved her of her wedding ring. After grabbing the loot, the bandit told her to go under the bed and he ran out. They had also grabbed 50 phone cards from the shop and the family’s cellular phone.
The Ganeshrams told Stabroek News that they had been told by neighbours that a car was waiting and the bandits jumped into it and it left. “Awe can’t do nothing, so quick it happen”, said Rajdai. The police were called and turned up shortly after. However, up to yesterday, no one had been held for the robbery.
The Ganeshrams said that they had moved into the Housing Scheme in February and opened their little shop just six weeks ago. The area where they live has no streetlights and they had not noticed how the men arrived. It was the first time they had been robbed, they said.
“Me nah resist at all”, Bholonauth said. “I stay neutral. Let them do what they want”, he added recalling a robbery in the Scheme back in July when 28-year-old guesthouse owner, Tashmudaye Lall, was fatally shot by bandits while begging for his life. Police are yet to charge anyone for that robbery/murder.
