CPG member's family gets 'Channa bomb' scare

CPG member’s family gets ‘Channa bomb’ scare

Oct 20, 2010 News

A family of four was scared out of their wits, as what were believed to be Molotov cocktails (channa bombs) were thrown into their yard at 26 Railway Embankment, Chateau Margot, East Coast Demerara, in the wee hours yesterday morning.
According to 72-year-old Dhanwantie Mahadeo, she was awakened by a noise that appeared to be the dog running in the yard. However, she then heard a crashing sound “like somebody pelt and then I holler for my son Praim. When I get up I see he in front the door. When we come outside the concrete floor was stained with gasoline with channa in a banko and a vodka bottle.”
The crude devices, fortunately, did not ignite.

Dhanwantie Mahadeo

A tearful Mahadeo opined that since her son, Davenand Shamraj, is in the community policing group and a rural constable this may have contributed to the act of hostility that their family experienced.
She said that her son did arrest an individual and this individual had threatened violence. However, she was not prepared to finger this person as the source of the Molotov cocktails.
She further noted that the family has been living there for years, and never experienced anything of this nature.
According to Davenand Shamraj, it appears that the job that he is doing voluntarily to protect his community is being viewed in a negative light.
However, he vowed as a law-abiding citizen to continue to do what is right in performing his functions to rid the community of elements who want to cause disharmony.
In the wake of the cocktails, the family called the police at Sparendaam and at Beterverwagting. They responded hours later.
The police visited the scene of the incident hours after and took statements and collected the physical evidence.
When the Beterverwagting Police Station was contacted it was disclosed that nobody had yet been detained in relation to the incident.
For Mahadeo, this is the third time that one of her children has had to cope with fire. A few years ago, fire destroyed the home of one of her daughters.
The woman recalled that at the time the fire started she was under a bed sweeping.
Fire then struck her eldest son, Sham Mahadeo, who owned and operated NDS Furniture Store at La Jalousie, West Coast Demerara, earlier this year. That blaze destroyed the man’s home and business place.