Local Government Councillor Ramchand Rajbal Maraj was robbed at gunpoint on Thursday morning.
Rajbal Maraj, who is the councillor for Carli Bay/California on the Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo Regional Corporation, said he was robbed by a well-dressed man with a Rastafarian hairstyle who came to his home at Rowan Street, Balmain Couva around 9:30 am.
Rajbal Maraj, who also is a Justice of the Peace, said the man came to see him in this capacity.
“I was leaving home to go to a meeting at the Corporation and as I opened the gate, this guy came in, very well dressed and told me wanted to get a WASA certificate stamped,” Rajbal Maraj told Guardian Media.
“He was fully well clothed, jacket and tie, with a rasta-looking hairstyle. While talking to me he pulled gun and said go to the back. While at the back he bound my hands and put a cloth in my mouth. He came back and said let’s go upstairs. I told him that I would comply once he did not interfere with my wife, who was home,” the local government official recounted.
The house of Ramchand Rajbal Maraj where he was robbed on Thursday 8 December 2022. He is the Local government councillor for Carli Bay/California on the Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo Regional Corporation. [Image by SHASTRI BOODAN]
Rajbal said the gunman ransacked his home and made off with a quantity of jewellery and cash before stealing Rajbal Maraj’s Toyota Hilux. Rajbal Maraj said the police responded in the quickest possible time.
The local government councillor recalled that in 2021, his vehicle was broken into while it was parked at the office of the Couva South MP, and he was also robbed at home in 2020.
Couva South MP Rudranath Indarsingh said the past week has seen a spike in the crime rate in Couva.
MP Indarsingh said it was on Monday this week that two men were murdered, and their bodies found off Rivulet Road, while on Wednesday night there were two robberies and one home invasion at Dow Village, California.
“The Government needs to go back to the people and seek a fresh mandate, let the people speak,” the Couva South MP asserts.
“I expect the murder rate to cross 650 for 2022. Crime is becoming unbearable, and the government has demonstrated its incompetence when it comes to crime fighting,” MP Indarsingh added.