Man injured after bandits raid doctor’s clinic
By Oscar P. Clarke
Stabroek News
October 19, 2002
A man who was visiting a private clinic at Vryheids Lust yesterday was critically wounded when he stumbled upon bandits stealing the doctor’s car.
According to a police press release David Singh, 42, of Lusignan, was “shot in the right side abdomen” by one of three armed bandits who made good their escape after robbing Dr Krishna K Sankar.
The men, the release further said had “at about 9:30 am ... robbed at gunpoint a medical practitioner [Sankar] of [Lot 26], Vryheids Lust, of his motor car # PHH 996, firearm with seven live rounds, a cell phone and a quantity of Guyana currency.” Singh who the release said was entering the clinic as the men were leaving, was shot by one of the bandits.
Singh was subsequently rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital [GPHC] where he underwent emergency surgery yesterday afternoon.
Stabroek News understands that the three armed men entered Dr Sankar’s clinic about an hour after he had opened for business and robbed him.
According to the release the police “with the assistance of the Guyana Defence Force [GDF] launched an intensive search” for the men. When Stabroek News visited the scene yesterday the doctor’s surgery was tightly locked and residents said it had been so since shortly after the morning’s events.
A resident recalled hearing a shot ring out within Dr Sankar’s clinic following which several men were seen departing the scene with the doctor’s grey coloured car. The car, according to the resident, was parked directly outside the clinic entrance about 50 yards off the main public road.
According to the resident, a short while later he noticed feverish attempts being made to transport a person [Singh] who from appearances seemed to have been injured as a result of the robbery.
The man, the resident said, had a short while before, transported a person to the clinic.
A relative of Singh yesterday confirmed that he had gone to Sankar’s clinic to drop off someone for treatment.
Following the robbery and shooting Dr Sankar closed his clinic and departed. Ranks from the nearby Sparendaam Police Station visited the scene.
Following the shooting, armed ranks of the Tactical Services Unit (TSU), clad in protective gear, were yesterday closely monitoring vehicles along the East Coast.
The officers, performing their duties despite steady rainfall were positioned at Turkeyen on the East Coast public road in the region of the road leading into the University of Guyana.
However, vehicles which got wind of the exercise began using the railway embankment roadway where there were no checks.
When Stabroek News visited Singh’s Lusignan home late yesterday afternoon relatives had just returned from the hospital and were reluctant to speak.
They merely said that he had just come out of the operating theatre and was in a serious condition.