A No. 2 Village, East Canje Berbice family is now living in fear after recent verbal and physical attacks from their neighbours.
On October 15, Timothy Dundas, 45, his 10-year-old daughter, and his 19-year-old cousin, Jadon Nurse were reportedly assaulted by the Phagwah family.
Timothy’s wife, Romona Dundas told the News Room on Thursday that he is at risk of losing his left eye while their young daughter is left traumatised. Nurse suffered a broken arm after he tried to intervene.
The family was allegedly attacked by 23-year-old Jacob Phagwah and his siblings, Carl Phagwah, 25, Brian Phagwah, 26, Falicha Phagwah, 30 and her husband 31-year-old Kuvendra Baijnauth.
They all appeared before Magistrate Renita Singh on Friday last at the New Amsterdam Magistrate’s Court.
The Phagwah siblings all pleaded not guilty after charged with inflicting grievous bodily harm on Timothy, his daughter and Nurse.
Falicha told the court that she is three months pregnant and was granted $150,000 bail while her brothers, Jacob, Carl and Brian were each placed on $50,000 bail.
Meanwhile, Baijnauth and Timothy were not required to plead to the charges and were both remanded to prison until October 28.
Nurse pleaded not guilty and was placed on self-bail.
According to Romona, for years the Phagwah family has been harassing and terrorising the residents of No. 2 Village. She explained that they have several ongoing court matters with other residents.
“Their father is the Vice Chairman [of the community] and he does go to the lengths to ensure they are not locked up and it has been going on for years,” Romona related.
She said they are fearful for their safety since the Phagwahs were granted bail they have reportedly been threatening them.
“Emotionally, my daughter is a wreck right now, she cannot go to school and she cries all the time,” Romona stated.
She recalled that on the night of the incident, her husband was returning home from work just after 20:00hrs when one of the Phagwah brothers started verbally abusing him.
“He [Timothy] and them were cursing each other back and forth, one of the sons when they passed the [Phagwah’s] house come out and kicked him below the belly – he has to do a surgery for that,” Romona explained.
She said after they heard the commotion, her 10-year-old daughter ran out and started videoing.
Subsequently, Romona claimed that the entire family started beating her husband and injured their daughter in the process.
“They beat him and dragged him in the yard.”
“He might lose one of his eyes and he has to do surgery, they remand him and he is in prison right now,” the woman said.
She further added: “The government did come up and ask to let persons living in each street to clean the street, so my husband cleaned our street and these people would always interfere with him, bring their garbage and throw it on the street, curse him and call him a gutter rat.”
Other residents have since taken to social media to complain about the harassment from the Phagwahs.
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