Bandits hacked to death a Non Pariel businessman early yesterday morning and almost severed his wife's hand while the couple's 14-year-old daughter hid under a bed.

Escaped with $100,000

Dead is Davechand Appanna, 45, of Lot 280 Section `B', Non Pariel, East Coast Demerara.

His wife, Hemrajie Appanna, was yesterday afternoon in a critical condition in the High Dependency Unit (HDU) of the Georgetown Public Hospital, nursing chop wounds to one of her wrists, both ears, head and other parts of her body. Her relatives said the woman was unable to speak to them after undergoing an operation in the afternoon.

According to reports the two knife- and cutlass-wielding bandits later escaped with $100,000. Appanna was brutally knifed and chopped to death by the two bandits who entered his home after kicking out the louvre panes and wooden barriers of one of the front windows.

Following the murder, the police swooped on the scene with tracker dogs and were led to a nearby house. This resulted in the arrest of five persons, including a woman.

Appanna's brutal murder came after what could be described as a lull in the numerous murders and robberies that had hit East Coast villages following the February 23, 2002 prison escape. The businessman himself had suffered four other robberies during the crime spree.

Police yesterday said Appanna was found lying on his stomach in his shop with part of a knife sticking out of his back and the other part lying in the blood on the floor.

According to Deputy Commissioner and Crime Chief, Henry Greene, who was on the scene yesterday morning along with several other senior police officers from the city, shortly before the police took her to the hospital the man's wife informed them that she had handed over the sum of $100,000 to the two bandits.

Greene told reporters that from reports gleaned two men entered the home while three others were on the road during the commission of the crime.

The point where the bandits gained entry to the home was a very small space and officers believe that a "small" person would have had to enter the home first and opened the front veranda door for the other person.

But in the process, the bandits knocked down a wall divider that housed a large television set and other items, resulting in the set being destroyed.

Investigators said this noise would have awakened the occupants of the home and might have caused the man to confront the two bandits. Officers said there were signs of a struggle in the top floor of the house and downstairs where the kitchen and shop are.

While the police could not say whether the men were armed with guns, they reported that Appanna sustained several stab wounds to his body and from indications he may have also been chopped. However, they found three live rounds of ammunition just outside the door that leads into the downstairs.

The investigators recovered two cutlasses, part of a knife, and a bloodied pair of scissors. These items, according to Appanna's son, who does not live at the home, belong to the family.

A police source related that shortly before the robbery, ranks would have been on patrol and surmised that the bandits might have seen the patrol and known that if they fired shots the policemen would have been alerted.

The couple's daughter, Aruna, told Stabroek News that she was awakened by a loud noise as if something had crashed to the floor.

"I den hear me mommy hollering fo 'thief, thief' and den somebody asking fo money and jewellery." The child recalled that she heard her mother telling the person that she had no jewellery as the bandits took all she had during the last robbery.

Terrified, the child said she hid under the bed but continued to hear the pleas of her parents who by this time were downstairs with the bandits.

According to the child, she heard one of the men asking if that was all the money and then she heard her father's voice but could not discern what he was saying.

"Den ah hear me daddy saying `oh ah go dead now' and den me ent hear nothing more, the place just went quiet."

When she ventured out of her room, she was greeted with blood on the floor and followed its trail down the inside stairs into the kitchen where she discovered her mother in a bloodied state, crying hysterically.

The child said she did not see her father but immediately called the police and when they arrived her father was found in the shop. The child said her mother gave the bandits the week's sale from the shop and also the money collected from two mini buses they owned.

Because he had been robbed several times, Appanna had bought a house in Enterprise, which was under renovation, and he had plans to move there soon.

When Stabroek News arrived on the scene yesterday morning scores of relatives and friends had gathered at the home, but they, along with media personnel, were prevented from entering the yard because the police were still conducting investigations.

One relative told this newspaper that the family had suffered so many times at the hands of bandits that the man had told his relatives not to visit him at night.

"He used to tell we nah fo come by dem in the nights because a dem bandits. He sey y'all don't come by we because we does lock up since night come. He did frighten. Why dey had to kill he? They coulda carry away deh house and all but don't kill he..." one relative wailed.

They pointed out that the man lived just opposite a rice miller who was murdered by bandits last year and that murder also propelled him to purchase the home in the nearby village.

Many of the persons gathered at the scene said Appanna could have been described as a model citizen who was always devoted to his family but who had also become frustrated after suffering so many times at the hands of bandits.

On December 27, 2003 bandits broke into the Appannas' home and robbed them of cash and jewellery. That was the third time for the year. The man and passengers in his minibus were also robbed in Buxton some time early last year, according to reports.