Five men, alleged to be members of a gang which terrorized Berbice since May, appeared before Magistrate Chandra Sohan at the Reliance Magistrate’s Court yesterday, charged with 19 counts of robbery under arms and were remanded to prison.
In addition to the robbery charges, the men each faced two counts of possession of firearms and ammunition without the relevant licences. They were refused bail and remanded to prison.
Ramanand Prettypaul, called ‘Ramo’, 33, of Lot J 1 Number 23 Armadale, West Coast Berbice; Jewan Pertab called ‘Tadloo’, 42, of Lot 71 Miss Phoebe, Port Mourant, Corentyne; Ganesh Tikalall, called ‘Andy’, 27, of Lot 48 Miss Phoebe; Rajendra Persaud called ‘Dan’, 39, of Lot 49 Fourth Street, Tain, Corentyne; and Syjit Ramoutar, called ‘Mono’ 30, of Lot 72 Section B Letter Kenny, Corentyne were initially scheduled to appear at the Albion Court, but were taken to the Reliance Court in East Canje instead, where they were not required to plead to the indictable charges of robbery under arms.
A sixth accused, Radesh Bashir, is currently a patient at the New Amsterdam Hospital and will appear in court when he is discharged from the medical institution.
Police Prosecutor Lance Corporal Roberto Figueira successfully opposed bail on the grounds that if granted their pre-trial liberty, the men may commit further offences. In addition, he said there is the likelihood that the men, who were not represented by counsel, would not attend their trial.
He also spoke of the prevalence of the offences and their nature and gravity, while further informing the court that other charges are pending, and investigations are continuing.
Police had said the men were fingered in robberies committed on the East Bank Berbice, along the Corentyne coast and at the Albion foreshore. Many of the victims were beaten and chopped with cutlasses, and relieved of valuables amounting to over $8M.
During the course of their investigations into the increased spate of armed attacks, Berbice police had recovered several items including a 12-gauge shotgun without serial numbers; a .32 revolver with three matching rounds minus identification numbers, an empty 12-gauge casing, six 12-gauge cartridges, three improvised shotguns, three face masks, a wig, a toque, and a lifejacket marked ECMU 001.
Police had said that the 12-gauge shotgun and matching casing along with the improvised guns were in a polythene bag, buried at the Port Mourant foreshore, while the remaining items were allegedly found in Persaud’s front yard, concealed under broken concrete blocks.
While most of the charges were filed jointly, Prettypaul is alleged to have used a cutlass to rob Baby Harrichand of a quantity of gold and cash amounting to $280 000, on May 27. He is also accused of robbing Drupattie Singh of gold and jewellery amounting to $117 000 on June 19, at Glasgow Village East Bank Berbice.
Four days later, he and Ramoutar, are accused of robbing Gay Park, East Bank Berbice resident Mohini Persaud of items valued $595 000. During the evening attack, the victim was beaten and chopped repeatedly with cutlasses and had to be hospitalized for several days.
Then on June 23, Prettypaul, Persaud, Pertab and Ramoutar allegedly robbed Budnarine Surtan of $161 000 and along with Bashir allegedly stole from Simon Pollingum, silver jewellery, cash and a cellular phone all valued $90 000.
On July 2, at Belvedere Village, Corentyne, Prettypaul along with Persaud allegedly relieved Habeeb Hussain of a .32 pistol, a 12-gauge single barrel shotgun, twenty 12-gauge cartridges, fifty .32 live rounds of ammunition and $2.98 million.
On July 21 at Belvedere Village, Prettypaul, Persaud, Pertab and Ramoutar, allegedly robbed Indrawattie Chandradeo of cash and gold jewellery amounting to $76 500.
The quartet, six days later, at the Albion foreshore, allegedly relieved Ramnarine Permaul of a 15 horsepower engine and other articles totalling $215 000.
On August 23 at Belvedere, Prettypaul, Persaud, Pertab and Ramoutar while armed with cutlasses allegedly robbed Naresh Ramasad of a silver band valued $3 000.
The same group are accused of robbing Rishilall Ramkellowan of a silver ring valued $1 800 at the Albion foreshore. They were also charged with robbing Deonarine Budraj of a seine and a quake totalling $17 000.
Then at Number One Road, Corentyne the men reportedly stole from Davendra Surtan a gold chain, an amplifier, a mixer and other items worth $572 000.
On September 2, Pertab, Prettypaul and Tikalall are accused of relieving Ketregine Ramkellowan of gold jewellery totalling $27 000. On the same date, Tiwari Persaud of Belvedere, was deprived of a quantity of household articles totalling $79,900 and Pettigee Ramkellowan was robbed of a six-foot casket valued $90,000.
On September 8, Prettypaul, Tikalall, Pertab, Persaud and Bashir, allegedly robbed Brijuman Carpen at Albion foreshore of a 40 HP outboard engine, 200 pounds of seine, and other article
totalling $1.39 million.
Two days later Persaud, Prettypaul, Pertab, and Ramoutar revisited the Albion foreshore where they allegedly robbed Kumar Chinapen of an outboard engine, an engine lead, and 400 pounds of seine amounting to $1.8 million.
On September 13, Persaud, Prettypaul, Pertab, and Ramoutar allegedly went to Number One Road and robbed Devika Sultan of jewellery and cash to the value of $1.2 million.
A day later, Pertab, Prettypaul and Tikalall are accused of robbing Ramwattie Poonai of gold jewellery and cash totalling $171 400.
The East Bank Berbice matters were transferred to the New Amsterdam Court for October 2, while the remaining matters will be called at the Albion Court on October 5.