As investigations continue into the recent robbery committed on the R Gossai and Sons General Store at Bagotstown, East Bank Demerara, the Police are yet to make an arrest. Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum when contacted told Guyana Times that the Police are working with several leads but no arrest was made in connection with the robbery.
The absence of the DVR player for the surveillance cameras is one challenge to solving the case. Another challenge is that the men were all masked but the Police are expected to resort to their fingerprint database for assistance in solving the
The R.Gossai and Sons General Store
crime.
However, the injured 63-year-old businessman, Rabindranauth Gossai, has been discharged from hospital but is still traumatised. His son, Joey Gossai told this publication that the business has been in operation for the past 70 years and it has been passed on from one generation to the next.
The young man noted that sometime back, his father was relieved of cash moments after he returned from a bank. “We were robbed once in the past but this is the first time in the house… that time, my father had just returned from the bank and he was accosted in the yard and relieved of the money he was carrying,” the younger Gossai noted.
On Monday evening, at least eight armed and masked men severely beat the elderly businessman and terrorised his family after which they carted off with an undisclosed sum of cash, a quantity of high-end liquor and a quantity of jewellery among other items.
The robbery occurred at about 20:00h as the younger Gossai went into the back of the yard to collect his car. From all indications, the men cut the barbed wire fence to gain entry to the yard where they hid for some time, until the man exited the house.
He was held at gunpoint and taken into the house where the gunmen assaulted his father. He was then placed to lie on the ground along with his mother and four-year-old son. As they were held hostage, the men ransacked the house and shop during which they found the money and jewellery. As the men were leaving, they collected the rum and other items.
After the 25-minute ordeal, the gunmen left and the younger Gossai managed to untie himself and his family. They subsequently contacted the Police and without hesitation, took his father, who was bleeding profusely, to seek medical attention.
