A Corentyne farmer was shot during a mother’s day celebration at No. 56 Village when five armed bandits barged in around 2 am and carted off cash and a quantity of gold jewellery.
Krishnadat Paydanna, 47 of Lesbeholden South, Black Bush Polder sustained a gunshot wound to his left shoulder and was rushed to the New Amsterdam Hospital (NAH) where he was admitted.
The rice and cash crop farmer was transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital yesterday morning. Police said in a release that Paydanna was shot after he resisted the bandits who were armed with three guns and two cutlasses.
Reports are that they also beat other guests and caused a 29-year-old man to be hospitalized.
Owner of the house, Kamach ‘Baby’ Muthusami told Stabroek News that her daughter, Rovina, 23 and son-in-law, Andy Ramjit, 28 who were visiting from overseas organized the family get-together.
She and some of the guests were sitting under the house during the celebration when two of the bandits entered and fired a shot in the air.
They ordered that “everybody get down on the ground” and then started to strip them of their money and jewellery.
Just then their three accomplices came in with the two cutlasses and another gun. She recalled that the men had their caps pulled down on their faces and also wore masks.
The woman said one of the bandits kept guard while the others ran upstairs. At the same time, Paydanna, her brother-in-law, who heard the noise, was heading downstairs to investigate when he was shot.
The bandits left him lying on the floor bleeding and they forced their way into a bedroom where her daughter and son-in-law were sleeping.
They ordered her daughter out of the room and placed her to lie on the floor. They then took her back into the room where her husband had remained and gun-butted them on their heads. They were treated at the NAH and sent away.
The bandits emptied a wardrobe and took away her wallet that contained US$600, her green card and other documents. They also relieved her of a gold chain worth $45,000, a bracelet valued US$500 and a Blackberry cell phone worth US$500.
The bandits returned to the bottom flat and continued to strip the others of their money and jewellery.
According to her the bandits kept asking for the keys to two cars that were parked in front of her house. The owner of one of the cars hid the key and instead gave the bandits $70,000 he had in his pocket.
Still not satisfied, when they got out on the road they opened the cars and found the 29-year-old man sleeping in one with his five-year-old son.
The bandits pulled him out because he could not produce the key and beat him severely, bursting his head in the process. He too was rushed to the hospital and was admitted a patient. Another man who was in the other car pretended he was fast asleep and they “ran through his pockets and took away his cell phone.”
Terrified, Baby said after the bandits left she and the others ran upstairs. It was only then that they realized that her brother-in-law had been shot and they rushed him to the hospital.
