AN acquitted murder accused was on Monday arrested and is currently in custody after attempting to break into a Republic Park, East Bank Demerara residence earlier this week. It is believed that Vishal Seecharan, called ‘Markie’, of Mocha, East Bank Demerara, is behind multiple break-ins at the same residence and other robberies in the area. The tenant of the residence Altovise Smith said that she was at home on Monday morning when she heard loud voices in the yard. Upon going downstairs, she found a family friend whom she was expecting to visit her that day escorting the young man out of the yard.

When asked what he was doing in the yard, ‘Markie’ responded that he wanted some mangoes, except, there were no mangoes in the surrounding trees. He then said that he was sent by a “dark skinned man” to clean the yard. Upon seeing the man’s face, Smith realized that she had seen him before in the vicinity of the house, just around the time two break-ins occurred at her home.

Smith then called the police who arrested the man and took him into custody. The woman recalled that on February 25, she went downstairs to find clothing strewn throughout the garage as well as other signs that someone had been “looking for something”. Upon investigating, she found the back door open.

The following day, Smith said that even though she was sure she locked the door after finding it open the day before, she woke up to find it open again with several items missing, including a large quantity of wares and other items that had been stored in the garage. She recalled also hearing a sound at her gate and when she looked outside, she saw a man who looked like ’Markie’ walking away with a bucket of items on a bicycle, which she did not immediately recognize as her own.

“I thought it was strange but he didn’t look like he was in a hurry, so I thought maybe he came calling to sell something and walked away when nobody answered. Then I called the guy who does maintenance on the house to come and check because I couldn’t imagine how someone kept coming in when the door bolts from inside,” she said.

When the man checked the premises it was discovered that the louvres to a small window at the back of the house were removed and placed on a drum situated just below the opening. It was then that they suspected that the assailant used that window as his point of entry on both nights.

After being taken to the Providence Police Station, it was revealed that ‘Markie’ was suspected as being behind several other robberies in the area, including a break-in at the Peter’s Hall Seventh Day Adventist Church. The man is also connected with the 2008 murder of an elderly woman from Canal Number 2 during a robbery at the woman’s home.

After being in prison for almost seven years, ‘Markie’ along with three other suspects were acquitted in 2014.