Resh­ma Ra­goonath

A 25-year-old Ari­ma car­pen­ter is ex­pect­ed to ap­pear be­fore a Ma­yaro mag­is­trate this morn­ing to an­swer some 22 charges, in­clud­ing kid­nap­ping for ran­som. The charges stem from an Au­gust 27, 2012, in­ci­dent in which eight peo­ple, in­clud­ing a woman, were at­tacked at St Bernard Es­tate, Ma­yaro, and robbed of a quan­ti­ty of cash and jew­el­ry.

Po­lice re­ports state that the man was ar­rest­ed last Thurs­day in Ari­ma and placed on sev­er­al iden­ti­fi­ca­tion pa­rades be­fore charges were laid. Among the charges are eight for false im­pris­on­ment, six for kid­nap­ping, two for kid­nap­ping for ran­som, three for rob­bery with ag­gra­va­tion, two for rob­bery with vi­o­lence and one for as­sault with in­tent to rob.

Po­lice re­ports state that on the date of the al­leged in­ci­dent, sev­en men and a woman, all be­tween ages of 18 and 60, were at the es­tate when they were ac­cost­ed by three men. They were robbed of an undis­closed sum of cash, cell­phones, jew­el­ry and their cars. The vic­tims were then moved from the es­tate and tak­en in­to a bushy area near­by. The men then es­caped.

The car­pen­ter was ar­rest­ed last Thurs­day by of­fi­cers of the Ma­yaro Po­lice Sta­tion and East­ern?Di­vi­sion task force. PC Patrick and Pc Moti­lal laid the in­dictable charges.