Armed bandits invade cop’s home

Feb 23, 2010 News

Police are questioning two taxi drivers from a popular city service in connection with an armed robbery last night at the home of a Police Sergeant in Triumph, East Coast Demerara.
Police believe that the two drivers controlled the getaway cars in which the five bandits fled after relieving the Jaikarran family and a neighbour of an undisclosed amount of cash and jewellery at around 19:30 hours.
The bandits timed their attack well and struck shortly after the policeman left for work.

Empty drawers and scattered clothes

They attacked the cop’s mother, Zabeda Jaikarran, his brothers, his sister in law as well as a neighbour.
Kaieteur News was told that the policeman’s mother was sitting in a hammock in conversation with the neighbour when the men entered the yard.
A tearful Zabeeda Jaikarran related that she heard footsteps coming towards her from out of the shadows and as she turned to look in the direction of the approaching footsteps a man grabbed her and pushed her to the ground.
As she protested that she was being stifled, the bandit slapped her in the face. He then placed a gun to her head and threatened to shoot her if she screamed.
As if to enforce his threat, the bandit dealt the elderly woman a cuff to the back of her neck and demanded “all the money and jewellery.”
The neighbour who was facing the direction from where the bandits came, told Kaieteur News that she saw the first one approaching with his finger to his lips signaling her to be silent.
At first she thought it was a joke until she saw the gun in the man’s hand.
Jaikarran’s youngest son, Jairam Jaikarran, was upstairs in his bedroom with his wife when he heard strange sounds downstairs.
“I hear somebody just whispering downstairs, so when I push me head (through the window), I see one person come and walk straight in the gate.”
Since his mother is engaged in business, no alarm bells rang in his head and he withdrew to his bed.
During the ensuing minutes, two bandits had his mother on the ground. They had the neighbour obeying their commands and handing over the jewellery she was wearing at the time.
Two other bandits rushed to Jairam’s older brother who was also in the yard, and covering his mouth, they forced him up stairs.
They demanded that he indicate who else was at home and he told them that his brother and wife were in their bedroom.
Jairam Jaikarran then realised that the strange sounds he was hearing downstairs, came from a robbery in progress.
The men forced their way into his bedroom and ordered him and his wife along with his brother unto the floor.
The Jaikarrans said that they told the men to take whatever they wanted but “don’t hurt anyone”.
The men ransacked the two bedrooms in the upper flat of the house, while their colleagues downstairs did likewise in the bottom flat.
Just as swiftly as they came the bandits fled the scene after receiving a signal from an accomplice.
“One downstairs shout, ‘time up’, and they left,” Jairam Jaikarran told this newspaper.
All of the men appeared to be in their 20s, according to the victims.
The policeman who was almost at his station of work returned home after receiving the news via telephone.
Kaieteur News was told that a man who is known to the family had been questioning the times of their movements earlier in the day.
The man had enquired from the cop’s mother what time her son was leaving to go to work.
Police, acting on information, pulled in two white AT192 Toyota Carinas and the respective drivers.
The men are maintaining their innocence but they will have a lot of questions to answer.