THE seven alleged perpetrators of the recent multi-million-dollar robbery at Lot 36, Bel Air Gardens, Georgetown, including the victims’ mother/mother-in-law and cousin, were further remanded to prison until September 8.
The accused are Jermaine Mitchell, 20, of Lot 2115 North East La Penitence; Rabindranauth Seemangal, 20, of Lot 100 Shell Road, Kitty; Aubrey Simone, 21, of Lot 1414 Princess Street, Lodge; Rayon Jones, 19, of Lot 10 Hardina Street, Wortmanville; Hardatt Kumar, 30, (no address given); Chandradha Rampersaud, 50, of Lot 8 Pigeon Island, East Coast Demerara and Sean Hinds, 40, of Lot 552 East Ruimveldt.
The accused, charged jointly with robbery under arms, made their second court appearance yesterday before Acting Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry. They are also facing separate charges.
Lawyers for the accused sought to renew their bail applications but the magistrate nevertheless denied their pre-trial freedom.
Particulars of the joint offence, to which they were not required to plead, said on July 12 last, at Bel Air Gardens, armed with a gun, they robbed Annie Ramsood of $1.4M, and US$29,400 (equivalent to GY$5.8M), belonging to businessman Malcolm Panday.
On the same day, they are also accused of robbing Ramsood of one blackberry cell phone valued $47,000 and $380,000 cash at gunpoint.
Mitchell, Seemangal, Simone and Jones all pleaded not guilty to charges of being in possession of eight live 9mm rounds of ammunition and one 9mm pistol on July 12, while they were not the holders of firearm licenses.
Simone alone pleaded not guilty to a charge which stated that, on the said day, he had a false motor vehicle identification number as PKK 3700, knowing it to be false.
Police Sergeant Lionel Harvey, prosecuting, informed the court that Rampersaud is the mother-in-law of Panday and was employed by him as a maid.
As a result of the termination of her employment, Harvey said Rampersaud revealed information to Kumar (another relative) as to where the virtual complainants keep their money and other valuables. Subsequently, the other accused were contacted and they planned the robbery.
According to the Prosecutor, Simone, who is the registered owner of the car that was involved in the robbery, changed the car identification number to PKK 3700 and he, along with the other accused, turned up at the virtual complainants’ home and carried out the robbery.
He said Panday managed to escape, but his wife Ramsood, was cornered by the bandits.