RALPH BAN­WARIE

Po­lice are search­ing for a group of ban­dits who tied, beat and robbed gar­den­ers in Guaico, San­gre Grande, on the Cor­pus Christi hol­i­day, while they were in their gar­dens.

Ac­cord­ing to a po­lice re­port, around 4 pm on Thurs­day, gar­den­ers Rod­ney Roopchands­ingh, 40, and Nicholas Ram­di­al, 25, both of Cara­po Jo­han Trace Uni­ty Lane, Sun­set Dri­ve, Ari­ma, were at their gar­dens at­tend­ing to their plants at Tu­rure Farm Road, Guaico, San­gre Grande, when five men dressed in dark cloth­ing and armed with firearms emerged from near­by bush­es, tied both vic­tims, beat them and forced them to lie on the ground.

The ban­dits then re­lieved them of a white H-100 van val­ued at $60,000, a Stihl 450 wack­er val­ued at $6,000, a Stihl 120 wack­er val­ued at $3,700, a Roy­al Con­dor Spray Can worth $400, a Sam­sung A11 cell phone val­ued at $1,500 and $700 cash.

The ban­dits then beat the vic­tims about their bod­ies be­fore es­cap­ing in one of the gar­den­er’s ve­hi­cles.

Of­fi­cers from the San­gre Grande CID re­spond­ed but were un­able to find the men.

Both vic­tims were tak­en to the San­gre Grande Hos­pi­tal, where they re­ceived med­ical at­ten­tion and were dis­charged.

The ban­dits then made their way to the home of an­oth­er farmer, Ju­nior Cro­marthy, 37, on Tu­rure Farm Road, Guaico.

Po­lice said the ban­dits called out to Cro­marthy and when he opened his door, he ob­served a man dressed in black point­ing a firearm at him.

The men en­tered the house, tied up Cro­marthy, his wife Chieme­ka Cro­marthy, 38, and his three chil­dren, aged 13, sev­en and three, and re­lieved them of jew­el­ry, a Sam­sung smart TV, a yel­low weld­ing plant and Sam­sung cell phones.

The ban­dits es­caped in the same ve­hi­cle they stole from the gar­den­ers.

Po­lice lat­er found the ve­hi­cle aban­doned in a bushy area and saw two men run­ning in­to the bush­es. They chased af­ter the sus­pects but the men elud­ed the po­lice and es­caped. Some of the stolen items were re­cov­ered.

The ve­hi­cle was tak­en to the Pin­to Po­lice Post, where it was processed by PC Ma­habir of North­ern Di­vi­sion CSI.

Ag Cpl Ram­nar­ine of San­gre Grande CID is con­tin­u­ing en­quiries.