The police have taken fingerprints from the scene of Wednesday morning’s attack on businessman Naresh Persaud and his family at their La Parfaite Harmonie, West Bank Demerara home and they are working towards identifying the three suspects.
Divisional Commander Rishi Dass told Stabroek News that five fingerprints, which were retrieved at the crime scene, are currently being processed by investigators to identify the perpetrators of the attack.
Around 2 am on Wednesday, three armed bandits broke into the Lot 546 La Parfaite Harmonie residence and they brutalised Persaud, 43, before carting off a quantity of cash and other items.
During the attack, which lasted for an hour, Persaud, who is the owner of the N&S General Store, was beaten in the presence of his wife and children, including his four-year-old daughter. He received stitches for three lacerations to the head.
The robbers, who had their faces concealed, were armed with two guns and a knife. They reportedly accessed the residence through the adjoining shop.
Naresh’s son, Sachin Persaud, 19, had recounted that he was awakened by the door to his bedroom being kicked open by the bandits around 2 am. Two of the perpetrators entered his room, a gun was pointed in his face and he was ordered to keep quiet.
“They pointed the gun to my head and then they walked… they ushered me to the room that they [his parents] were in and when I reached there, they pushed me down on the ground. They were like, ‘Lie down, lie down next to he’—that’s my father right—he was in blood. My mom was sitting, her face was swollen. My sister was on the bed looking over everything,” Sachin explained.
He said that from the information he received about what occurred, prior to him being taken into the room, the bandits had first entered his parent’s room, where they pounced on his father and began gun-butting him in the head and choking him.
His mother, Samantha Thakurdeen, reportedly screamed and was hit in the face. They later scotch taped her mouth shut to keep her quiet.
Sachin’s sister was not harmed during the attack or tied up with the rest of her family
“Apparently two of them were so aggressive and the other one was a bit lenient and that’s what we’re thankful for because before they didn’t collect me yet, they were hitting him, trying to shoot him…,” Sachin related.
He said the men kept asking about “the green money” and the location of the “lotto money.” His father, he indicated, was repeatedly kicked, slapped and hit in the head, in an attempt to get him to hand over cash.
Sachin said they asked him whether he had any money in his room and he directed the bandits to the locations where he kept cash.
He added that one of the bandits enquired where his iPhone was. Sachin admitted that it was a peculiar question to be asked, and later, he said the men may be known to his family.
The perpetrators took his haversack, laptop, cellphone, colognes, and a quantity of cash with them as well as his mother’s handbag, and items from the shop, including phone cards, cigarettes and bottles of oil. Sachin could not speak to the amount of cash stolen, but indicated it was not a significant amount.
Although the location is equipped with cameras, the men took the digital recorder from the residence.
Before leaving, the men tied the victims’ hands and legs and left them on the bed.
The young man had related that they attempted to call 911 twice but got no answer. They did, however, manage to make contact with the La Grange Police Station, and ranks arrived within 15 minutes
