Police were yesterday questioning two porters working with the Kurmiahs, who own a fishing business and retail fish at Linden on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The porters who had travelled from Linden with the couple Friday night, were with them when the armed and masked bandits pounced, the couple said yesterday.

After spending more than fifteen minutes terrorising the couple and ransacking their bedroom on the upper floor of the two-flat building, the men escaped on foot with their booty.

The beleaguered couple told the Sunday Chronicle they had just returned home from Linden, tired after being out of the home since Thursday night and selling fish all day Friday.

Dhanraj said that it was around 21:00h when they got out of the truck and his wife, who had the proceeds from the day’s sales in a bag strapped around her waist, opened the door and entered the house.

He said he was behind her, and as he was about entering, a man, masked and armed with a gun, pounced on him while another, armed with a cutlass, thrust himself against the door and used the weapon to keep the door open.

Dhanraj said he then observed that there were four of them – three armed with guns and the fourth with a cutlass. The men started beating him and his wife on their heads with gun butts, asking “Whey de money deh?” and demanding that they hand over all the cash.

He said he and his wife fell to the ground under the blows but the men continued to terrorise them.

They trampled the woman with their feet, instructing them to be quiet, or they would kill them, the husband said.

Bleeding from the head, and fearful for their lives, the nervous couple said they complied and handed over the money which Niroajnie had in the bag strapped around her waist.

On collecting her bag with cash, the men enquired how much was in it. When told that it was about $6,000, the bandits demanded more cash, and pointing a gun at Dhanraj’s neck, again insisted that they be quiet or be killed, since they (the armed men) had come to kill.

The two said they begged for their lives, telling the men to take whatever they wanted and leave.

To this, they ordered Dhanraj to hand over the keys for the truck to them. He did so, and the men opened it up and found more money, he said.

Dhanraj said it was after this discovery that two of the men with big guns went upstairs; one with a smaller gun held the couple and one of their porters hostage in the bottom flat of the house, while the other kept guard outside.

The Kurmiahs reasoned there was a strong likelihood that some person or persons who knew the home and family’s whereabouts very well might have orchestrated the attack, or otherwise acted in league with the bandits who did not ransack anywhere else in the home.

After making a haul of about $2 million, the bandits made off and the couple raised an alarm.

They said they made a report at the Vigilance Police Station, and since the bandits had left them penniless, later sought medical treatment at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).

The two said they have in recent years been constantly stalked and robbed.

They said that in February 2005 bandits, at Blueberry Hill, Wismar, robbed them of $180,000, stabbing their son in the region of his lungs.

Later that same year, bandits broke into the home of their daughter at Courbane Park, also on the East Coast Demerara, and shot her brother in an arm as he and his father intervened. Luckily, they said, the daughter was not at home.

Before the year was out, pirates hijacked three of the Kurmiahs’ fishing boats at sea, they related.

In February, 2006, bandits again attacked the business at Linden, this time robbing Dhanraj of his firearm, $250,000, a gold chain and ring and a cellular phone. Before making off, he said, they stripped him naked and left him on a road in Linden.

Out of caution, the couple said they had their two children migrate. But now, they claim it has gotten so much to them the children are urging them to sell the home and business and migrate also.

Dhanraj said they have been living at their Annandale home for about 20 years and worked hard to acquire what they now have. It would really be hard for them to give it all up, he said.

He said he was due to travel out of the country today for a short period, but all that has been thwarted.

Sunday, February 04, 2007

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