RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

An al­leged rob­ber has been cap­tured in con­nec­tion with the bru­tal as­sault and rob­bery of busi­ness­man Mo­han Per­sad and his wife, Shirley, the own­ers of the renowned su­per­mar­ket chain Per­sad’s ‘D’ Food King.

Af­ter five months of in­ves­ti­ga­tion, Sgt Nanan, un­der the su­per­vi­sion of Ag ASP Ram­lo­gan and In­sp Mo­hammed, con­duct­ed in­quiries and for­mal­ly charged the 20-year-old sus­pect, who is from Ma­haraj Street, El So­cor­ro, San Juan.

The ac­cused was charged with two counts of bur­glary and two counts of rob­bery with vi­o­lence. 

He is ex­pect­ed to ap­pear at the South­ern Mas­ters’ Court on Tues­day. 

The phil­an­thropic cou­ple, who ini­ti­at­ed the gro­cery food chain which em­ployed hun­dreds of in­di­vid­u­als over the years, was as­sault­ed and robbed dur­ing a home in­va­sion on Oc­to­ber 3 last year. The bur­glars ab­scond­ed with a vault con­tain­ing cash, jew­ellery, and firearms from the Per­sads’ res­i­dence in New Grant, Princes Town. 

Po­lice said Mo­han and Shirley, both 78 years, were awak­ened around 3 am by six men. One of the per­pe­tra­tors car­ried a gun.

Af­ter gain­ing en­try by pry­ing open a win­dow, the as­sailants beat the cou­ple about their bod­ies, their hands were bound with tie straps and their faces were ob­scured.

The ban­dits took a vault which con­tained $10,000, a li­censed re­volver with 25 rounds of am­mu­ni­tion val­ued at $7,000, a li­censed shot­gun with ten rounds of am­mu­ni­tion val­ued at $8,000, and a $3,000 cell­phone. A dig­i­tal video recorder (DVR) and a quan­ti­ty of gold jew­ellery were al­so stolen.

Po­lice said more ar­rests are im­mi­nent as they are search­ing for five oth­er men.