RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Farm­ers at Poodai La­goon in Pe­nal are un­der siege by thieves who have been steal­ing their crops in broad day­light. 

They say the main cul­prit is a gun-tot­ing res­i­dent who has been bring­ing out­siders in­to their com­mu­ni­ty to raid their wa­ter­mel­on, pump­kin, corn and ochre fields.

How­ev­er, even though they have pro­vid­ed video footage and pho­tographs to the Pe­nal Po­lice, the farm­ers said the sus­pect con­tin­ues to dis­tress them.

Last week Fri­day, Dhan­pat Jag­mo­han said he saw the thief walk­ing through his fields and when Jag­mo­han con­front­ed him, the thief came back with a gun and threat­ened to shoot up his camp.

“I ketch him in my gar­den at about 10 o’clock. He told me that field of corn is his be­cause he is a share­hold­er of that corn,” Jag­mo­han re­called. 

“He start­ed to curse my son and wife. I came back out here with the set of farm­ers and he came back with the gun and say he go­ing and shoot up the camp,” he added.

Oth­er farm­ers be­gan plead­ing with the thief and Jag­mo­han said he alert­ed the po­lice who went to the thief’s house but did not find him.

“Po­lice told me to come Sat­ur­day and make a re­port which I did. The po­lice say they will is­sue a war­rant to search his house,” Jag­mo­han added.

Since the in­ci­dent oc­curred, Jag­mo­han said he has been scared to re­turn to camp or to reap his pro­duce.

Mean­while, an­oth­er farmer Ram­c­hand Ram­nar­ine, who was al­so threat­ened said he want­ed more ac­tion from the po­lice.

“Due to the weath­er, we get a crop for the first time in two years but we fac­ing prae­di­al lar­ce­ny. This man steals by the truck­load of wa­ter­mel­on. He walks in the fields freely and steals the crops and when you tell him about it, he threat­ens you. We ketch him thiev­ing and sell­ing. We are here in the hot sun but he home sleep­ing and every day he thiev­ing we out,” Ram­nar­ine said.

Footage and pho­tos of the sus­pect have been giv­en to po­lice, Ram­nar­ine added.

An­oth­er farmer, Nan­di­ni Ram­saran, said she of­ten slept in her camp to pro­tect her crop. How­ev­er, since the spate of lar­ce­ny in­creased, she too has been afraid.

“We work hard every day. From 6 am we out here al­ready work­ing in the field and for some­one to just come and take the pro­duce it is very un­fair,” she said.

An­oth­er farmer, Sookdeo Ram­nar­ine said it was re­gret­table that af­ter two years of flood loss­es when farm­ers fi­nal­ly reaped a bumper crop, there was con­tin­u­ous lar­ce­ny.

He called on the po­lice to boost pa­trols, not­ing that the thieves were op­er­at­ing in broad day­light with no fear of be­ing ar­rest­ed.

When con­tact­ed, coun­cil­lor for Quinam Morne Di­a­blo Diptee Ram­nath said Poodai La­goon is not the on­ly farm­ing com­mu­ni­ty hard hit by thieves.

“There are al­so re­ports of lar­ce­ny in Ja­groop Trace, and the Scotts Road area,” Ram­nath said.

He called on the Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture to send down of­fi­cers of the Prae­di­al Lar­ce­ny Squad to pa­trol the agri­cul­tur­al fields.

Mean­while, Pe­nal po­lice said they are look­ing in­to the res­i­dents’ com­plaints.

Agri­cul­ture Min­is­ter Kaz­im Ho­sein al­so told Guardian Me­dia that they are in the process of re­cruit­ing 40 prae­di­al lar­ce­ny of­fi­cers. In­ter­views are cur­rent­ly be­ing done.

Ho­sein said three new ve­hi­cles are be­ing pur­chased to boost pa­trols in farm­ing com­mu­ni­ties.