Retired headmaster beaten, robbed            Friday July 5, 2002


Gun, cash taken; niece terrorised
As confusion reigned in the main shopping area of the city on Wednesday, four men armed with cutlasses, invaded the business place of a retired headmaster and escaped with close to $100,000 in local and foreign currency, after beating him and terrorising his niece.


The incident occurred at about 1500 hrs at Lot 51 Princes Street, Lodge. At the time, two protesters had already been shot dead in the Accounts Department of the Office of the President and, on Regent Street, members of the Guyana Fire Service were fighting to bring a raging fire under control. Several persons had also reported that they were attacked and robbed by pockets of unruly persons.

Ganase Singh


 Chandra Singh

But at the Princes Street shop, Chandra Singh told Stabroek News yesterday, four unmasked men entered and one of them asked for $20 worth of Bristol cigarettes.
"I was at the back of the counter when four men approached me for $20 Bristol. Seeing that they looked so suspicious, I took the Bristol in front of the building and hand it to them. Then they got me busy, [asking] about Busta drink, if I don't have a cold one. I said I don't have no drink. With that, I was trying to see if I could run out, but a tall, brown skin, grey-head chap tried to block me in front," the 50-year-old businesswoman stated as she recalled the attack.
According to her, one of the men, who is short and has plaited hair, scrambled her T-shirt at the back and pulled her inside the building. Her 78-year-old uncle, Ganase Singh, who is a retired headmaster, was in the shop at the time.
"After then, three pounced on my uncle and throw him on the shop floor and start kicking and stamping him on his face, his mouth, his chest... They tied him up, hands behind [his back], his feet and stuffed paper in his mouth," the woman related.
Ms Singh said the short bandit with the plaited hair then placed a knife to her throat and demanded money and jewellery.


"All four of them had long knives, [so] whatever sales, I handed over to them. That was $20,000. Then the one with the plait hair asking, `What happen to that big man money?' I brought him inside and I showed him the press. He took a file and wrenched the padlock."
From the wooden press, the bandits carted off $11,000 cash, as well as US$50, which someone had given the old man as a gift. Ms Singh said the bandits then started demanding her uncle's gun, threatening to kill her if she did not hand over the weapon.
"He took a big dress and stuffing it to my mouth, forcing it down my throat and still asking questions. Then they start pulling the drawers on the writing desk, looking for the gun." The bandits found the .25 `Burnadeli' pistol.
After finding the gun, Ms Singh said, the bandits demanded more money from her. She acquiesced and showed them where she had stashed $60,000.
"They took the bag with $60,000 and ran me down the step with speed. Then the plait hair one and the three walked out and go through South Alleyway (one lot away)," the woman told this newspaper. During the ordeal, carpenters were at work constructing a new building next door to the Singhs, but apparently no one knew that anything was amiss.
The woman is adamant that her attackers were not from the area.
The old man told this newspaper: "I never dreamed that this would happen to me in my life. I hoped I [would have] died before this had happened...[it] would be stored up in my mind for the balance of my life." He has been operating the business since 1950.
Like the victim of last week's murder/robbery at Meten-Meer-Zorg, West Coast Demerara, the Singhs complained about the length of time the police took to respond.
"I have been a teacher for 40 years and a headmaster for ten years and this was the reward I got from teaching students," the old man lamented.