Cops raid Anand's maid's home looking for guns

ONE week after police searched the home of former attorney general Anand Ramlogan, police raided the home of his 62-year-old housekeeper looking for guns and ammunition.

Police did not find any weapons but arrested the 36-year-old son of housekeeper Goomatee "Savi" Ragbir, for allegedly having marijuana.

The search happened at the family’s home at Sir Lamont Avenue, Philippine, on the outskirts of San Fernando, less than a ten-minute drive from Ramlogan’s home at Palmiste.

During the one-and-a-half-hour search, Ragbir said she became angry when a policeman told her to "call Anand."

"I did not tell them where I was working. One said, ‘Call Anand now nah. He could help you. That multi-million house he thief and build.’ That was upsetting to me as an individual. If you are searching my house, why tell me that?" she said.

Ragbir, the grandmother of five, said one police told her he knows "every nook and cranny of Anand’s house."

Ragbir said she did not know why the family was targeted considering relatives have had no run in with the law.

Ragbir said, "Maybe this is something connected to Anand. They were opening envelopes looking for arms and ammo."

Ragbir told Newsday that she was doing chores and preparing to go work at about 6.30 am when about 20 police swooped down on the house and called out the name of another son who lived with her.

"I was hanging clothes and doing chores. They (police) called out to Troy, then about 20 of them reached, one with a dog on a leash. They kick down Troy’s door and ransacked everything. All this time I did not know what they were looking for. They kicked down my other son’s door and arrested him claiming to find marijuana."

Still unaware of the reason for the police presence, she heard police saying they had a warrant to search for guns and ammunition. She said police did not show it to her but showed her son a document, purporting to be a warrant, without the family’s address.

"They were asking him for this address. If they had one, why ask him?" said the woman.

Ragbir, her husband Pooran Ragir, 64, a heart patient, and their two sons were at home.

At about 5 am, the sons had returned home from selling vegetables in the Debe market.

Pooran said police turned his house "upside down" and were aggressive and disrespectful during the search.

"How Anand get his money has nothing to do with us. We have respect for the man. My whole house ransacked. We never had cause to be in a courthouse before," Pooran said.

The son is expected to be charged today. Once charged, he will appear before a San Fernando magistrate.

Earlier this week police charged Ramlogan and a former UNC senator with three offences of conspiracy to receive financial rewards. Ramlogan is on a $1.2 million bail.

Related story: Griffith on search of Anand maid’s home: I wasn’t aware of it