As police continue their investigations into the robbery/murder at Wellington Park, Corentyne another woman was arrested, joining the two others as well as the three men who had been in custody since Tuesday.
The robbery which occurred around 1:40 am on Monday left a security guard of Nand Persaud & Co. Ltd, Arjune Gobin, 47, of Bloomfield, dead and the Chief Executive Officer, Rajendra Persaud with gunshot injuries.
Rajendra’s condition has improved and he has since been discharged from the hospital.
Reports are that the bandits had apparently used shot guns and 9 mm automatic weapons to carry out the attack.
This newspaper learnt yesterday that two live 9 mm rounds were recovered along with one live 12-gauge cartridge, thirty-one 9 mm spent shells and twenty-two 12 gauge cartridges and six warheads.
Reports are that a group of policemen from the Tactical Services Unit
(TSU) based at the Whim Police Station had made one of their usual visits to the home of the women.
Residents had criticized the police for the slow response and charged that at the time of the robbery the vehicle belonging to the TSU members was seen parked in a street between Wellington Park and Tarlogie.
However, Commander of ‘B’ Division, Steve Merai had told this newspaper he received the same report and conducted investigations and dismissed it as “nonsense.” Another senior rank had said they were “looking into” the reports against the ranks.
Merai pointed out that the TSU members who responded to the robbery left the Whim Police Station, some six miles away, immediately after receiving the report.
He said the officers could not get to the scene before the bandits fled because the call about the robbery was not made to the station immediately.
The top cop had pointed out that the woman, Vasantie ‘Sandra’ Ganesh, 43, whose house was being robbed, called her husband, Surendra Ganesh, 50, – who left home at 1 am for the airport – and her brother, Rajendra Persaud while the men were breaking into the house but may have panicked and did not call the police.
Yesterday Vasantie admitted to this newspaper that she did not think of calling the police herself. “I called my brother because I know he would call the police.”
Immediately after receiving the call Rajendra left for the scene while his other brother, Mohindra contacted the police. But as he got there the bandits opened fire, and a bullet grazed the back of his head.
He “ducked” to escape the hail of gunfire and “mashed the accelerator hard but he could not see where he was going…,” a relative said.
His vehicle then crashed into a utility pole and ended up in a ditch and into a plough. The commander had said that it was only then that a relative who witnessed the accident called the police.
Gobin was being taken to the scene in another vehicle when the bandits shot him. He was pronounced dead on arrival at the Port Mourant Hospital.
Vasantie told Stabroek News too that although she was still traumatized by the incident she was trying hard to cope.
She said, “As the days go by the memories would fade out but my life would never be the same again. Whenever I hear any noise everything would come back to me.”
The bandits had pounded a hole in the wall at the southern side of the house with sledgehammers while firing shots wildly around. After entering the house through the hole they continued to riddle the house with bullets and ransacked all the rooms.
By then Vasantie and her two children; Avinash, 20 and Vinaya, 14, had secured themselves in a room in the house.
The bandits only managed to escape with $5,500 that was in a wallet in Avinash’s room. They attempted to steal a laptop computer from the bottom flat but left it on a table in the yard instead.
Ganesh said that the house has already been fixed up but the extensive damage that the bandits had done cost him a lot more than was stolen.
