Early-morning terror for Penal family

WHAT manner of men will break down the door to the home of a simple peace-loving family, chop the mother across the eye, threaten to kidnap her four-year-old daughter, demand cash and jewellery and bite a 74-year-old?

The bandits made off with $2,000 of the family's sou-sou money, which they would have used to spend a merry Christmas and ring in the new year.

The only hope police have of catching these ruthless bandits, relatives said today, is a pair of Nike slippers that one of the bandits left behind.

Annisa Ramnarine, 28, received 22 stitches to her right eye at the San Fernando General Hospital. Her brother-in-law Nishan Bissoon, 30, was chopped on one foot. His stepfather, pensioner Jairam Bedasie, 74, was bitten on the right hand.

The ordeal began at about 2 am yesterday when three men with cutlasses kicked down the front door of the family’s home at Suchit Trace in Penal.

Ramnarine’s common-law husband, Navin Bissoon, 32, a labourer, said the family was awakened by the noise and he saw three men inside his bedroom with cutlasses. Their faces were covered with bandanas and they demanded the family's cash and jewellery. The couple's four-year-old daughter Shania was also in the bedroom.

"They say if we did not give them money, they would have taken our daughter. One jumped on the bed to snatch my daughter.

"Same time I jumped, snatched him and throw him on the ground. One raised the blade to attack me. My brother came in and we tried to wrestle the men," Navin said.

"We are poor people and we feel maybe the area is an easy target and wherever these bandits get through, they rob people.

"They thief our phones."

He had many bruises, but his brother was chopped and has other injuries.

During the attack, the child was also injured.

It was only after the men ran off and climbed into a getaway car that Ramnarine realised she had been chopped across the eye.

The men's stepfather Jairam Bedasie and his wife were asleep in another bedroom, but the commotion also woke them up. At the time Bedasie thought Ramnarine and Bissoon were arguing. When he went into their bedroom, the bandits were on top of his stepsons. Bedasie was about to hit the bandits, but one bit him on his right hand.

"He held on to my hand, but this old man not able. I take the bite.

"I never experienced anything like this in my life. I am an elder and trustee in the Grace Baptist Church at Mohess Road. I have been living for Jesus for the past 48 years now," Bedasie said.

The bandits ran out and a pair of slippers fell off.

Relatives said about two months ago bandits went to a nearby home one afternoon and stole appliances.

The injured victims were taken to the hospital.

Penal police are investigating.