Senior Reporter
sascha.wilson@guardian.co.tt
With three violent home invasions in a week, residents of Barrackpore are now appealing for increased police patrols. The incidents occurred at Cunjal Road South and Julian Trace.
In the latest incident on Thursday, sixty-seven-year-old gardener Jaggernath Ranoo was at his Cunjal Road home with his friend Hardath Maharaj, 65, watching cricket and cooking.
However, around 4.30 pm, four suspects armed with guns and cutlasses entered the house and planassed both men. The bandits then ransacked the house and robbed Ranoo of a Samsung tablet, a wacker and $1,000, before they escaped in Maharaj’s $100,000 silver-grey Nissan Caravan.
Last week there was another home invasion on the same street, where family members were tied up and robbed. When Guardian Media visited the community yesterday, neither Maharaj nor Ranoo was home. Ranoo’s brother, Suresh, however, said his brother has temporarily moved out of his home.
“He frighten now. He don’t really want to stay there right now,” Suresh told Guardian Media.
Concerned about crime in his community, he said he had also heard that another resident, a woman, was beaten and robbed during another home invasion.
“Everybody frighten right now. We planning to get the police to come and patrol,” he said.
In another incident, an elderly couple, ages 74 and 76, of Julian Trace, were attacked at their home by intruders around 2.10 am. Shortly after they were jolted from their sleep by a loud crashing sound, they were confronted by two men armed with guns. The intruders beat the man and stole cellphones and money. The suspects then escaped in the man’s blue Nissan AD wagon. They entered the couple’s home by smashing a front glass door.
Up to yesterday afternoon, there were no arrests in any of the incidents.