Armed bandits attacked two farmers and their wives in neighbouring villages on the Corentyne during the wee hours of Friday morning.
Narinedatt Chandan, 72, a cash crop farmer of Lot 7 Public Road Nurney Village, Corentyne, yesterday told Sunday Stabroek that he was preparing his vegetables to head to the market when around 1.20 am four bandits invaded his premises. “While me bend down a pack me greens here, me feel say somebody kick me or cuff me at the back of me neck and me wife run out and me start holla, say ‘Thief man!” the senior recounted.
He said the bandits, who were armed with cutlasses, a gun and a knife, then forced them into their kitchen and started to hurl expletives.
They threatened to “bust abie in abie two belly” and “kill abie out,” Chandan related. “He start rough me up, [and] press me on me neck. Them tie down me two hand and foot and stamp me on the back of me neck,” he added.
According to the man, the bandits, who also placed his wife to lay on the kitchen floor, demanded cash from them. “Them say if abie na give them the money them go kill abie two and then me tell the one chap that me a one pensioner and me get $40,000, it deh under me mattress, lef abie and carry away the money,” Chandan said.
According to him, after retrieving the $40,000 in cash, one bandit then began to “behave and cuss up that abie get more money that abie hide am and abie better take am out or he go buss all abie belly”.
The bandits then started to ransack the house, resulting in Chandan’s scared wife handing over whatever money she had.
Chandan then noted that the bandits took his wife over to his brother’s house, which has a shop and told her to call for his brother and tell them that “me (Rajgopaul) need $1,000 for passage to go market [and] for them to open the door”.
Chandan said that by then he got his feet out of the binding and rushed to his veranda, where he started to yell “Thief!” “So me start holla that thief man deh deh with me wife, ayo na open the door and one bandit downstairs pick two beer bottle and start pelt me,” the man recalled.
He said neighbours started to wake up and put on their lights. “Them bring me wife back here and bounce she head on the concrete and them lef she and go way after people start wake up,” Chandan added.
Chandan’s wife, who sustained minor injuries to her head, sought medical attention at the Port Mourant Hospital yesterday.
The bandits carted off two cellphones, valued $10,000 in total, two finger rings, valued $40,000, and $70,000 in cash.
Meanwhile, three bandits armed with cutlasses pounced on Samuel Rajgopaul, 68, a farmer, of Lot 56 Alness Village, Corentyne, around 3.45 am yesterday.
According to information gathered, Rajgopaul’s wife heard her husband shouting “thief” from his bedroom, after which the bandits rushed to her and demanded cash and jewellery.
One of the bandits then placed her on the ground and started to stomp on her head, while the others ransacked the bedroom, where they retrieved a box containing some valuables. They then fled.
The bandits escaped with a quantity of jewellery, an iPhone S6 and another cellphone.
The woman was taken to the Port Mourant Hospital on Friday and she received treatment for her injuries.
Police have since launched investigations of the attacks.
