Jail for stealing cherries, stabbing cop

A BAG of cherries cost Allan Ragoonanan two years in jail.

Because he took a broken bottle and wounded a policeman who tried to arrest him. Ragoonanan, 52, pleaded guilty before senior magistrate Cherril-Ann Antoine in the San Fernando Magistrates' court for stealing the cherries, malicious wounding, assault, two charges of resisting arrest and being found on enclosed premises.

The prosecutor, Cleyon Seedan, said police responded to an emergency wireless message from police Command Centre on Saturday afternoon that a stranger was on the premises of a resident at Kenneth Drive, Gopaul Lands, Marabella.

Police saw Ragoonanan with the bag of cherries and one of them asked him if he lived there. Seedan said that when PCs Mark Balkaran and Anthony Figaro confronted Ragoonanan, he picked up a broken bottle and slashed Balkaran on the left arm. There was a struggle, Seedan said, during which Ragoonanan fought with the police and physically assaulted Figaro.

Antoine asked Ragoonanan why he behaved so bady for a few cherries.

He said, "Boss, I don't know what happen. I just decided to fight up."

The magistrate was shown a medical certificate which described the bottle injury.

For inflicting that wound, Antoine jailed Ragoonanan for two years with hard labour. For assaulting Figaro, he will serve nine months. On two charges of resisting arrest, the magistrate ordered him to serve four months each.

For being found on enclosed premises, Ragoonanan qill serve two months. And for stealing the cherries, he will serve six months. The sentences are to run concurrently.