The woman who allegedly rented that car that was used as the gateway vehicle in last Wednesday’s armed robbery at the home of PPP General Secretary Clement Rohee was yesterday handed over to the police by a civilian.
This was confirmed by a police source who informed Stabroek News that the woman was handed over to officers at the Brickdam Police Station yesterday, and she is in custody assisting with investigations.
The identification card of the woman was found in the car over the weekend.
This development, according to the source, came even as Rohee hampered the investigation with his refusal to allow investigators full access to CCTV footage which captured the incident.
The robbery occurred around 11 am on Wednesday at Rohee’s Lot 6 – 7 Ixora Avenue, Eccles, East Bank Demerara home, during which three bandits armed with guns and a knife assaulted two maids and carted off an undisclosed amount of cash and jewellery.
The car was found parked on Croal Street, Georgetown hours after the incident.
The police had said in a statement that the bandits carted off a quantity of gold jewellery, several wristwatches and cash, having assaulted and duct-taped the hands and feet of Rohee’s two domestic workers who alone were present at the time.
Enquiries revealed, the police said, that the two women, aged 28 and 52 years old, were in the lower flat of the building, when the suspects, armed with handguns, entered through an open western door and demanded cash and jewellery. The women said they had none and were assaulted, bound and taken to the upper flat. The bandits then ransacked the rooms and escaped with the valuables in a waiting car bearing registration number PRR 514.
Rohee, former minister of home affairs, had told reporters that he left home around 9.30 am on Wednesday for work. He later received a call from a neighbour informing him of police presence in front of his home.
According to Rohee, the bandits easily gained entry into the tightly secured home since the grill to the back door was left open by one of the maids. “They tied them up with duct tape and take them upstairs where they began demanding gold and jewellery but of course they don’t know about that,” Rohee said.
During the ordeal, which lasted for about 20 minutes, he said, the maids were assaulted and the men ransacked the entire house.
Fingerprints were lifted from the crime scene and the police are still on the hunt for three other suspects including a known character.