Kinoya Village Uproar With Youths Alleged Involvement In Robbery

People of Kinoya Village off Ratu Dovi Road in Nasinu are not happy at all especial­ly with a group of youths who are alleged to be part of a burglary yesterday morning.

Village elders are contemplating removing the families of anyone charged for the crime as they be­lieve that the name of the village has been tarnished by the alleged act.

Police arrested four youths from Kinoya village yesterday follow­ing a burglary at BL Naidu and Sons Limited warehouse.

A safe containing $14,000 and a digital video recording unit for the camera surveillance system were stolen. Police managed to retrieve the safe, which was empty.

Turaga-ni-koro Isoa Rabia said this was the first-time people from the village had been involved in such a crime.

“Everybody in Kinoya koro is unhappy. They are very angry be­cause when we switched on the radio this morning, the name of our place was dragged through the mud,” he said.

“I was advised by some of the vil­lage elders to call a meeting this evening (last night) to decide what to do. To keep them in the village, tell their families to go from here, all this will be discussed.”

Community leader Jonetani Bai said his family members had called from abroad expressing dis­gust about the incident.

“My son called from England. He was furious. He wanted to know if we were still strict about such be­haviour,” Mr Bai said.

“We will have a meeting and if the consensus is that the families of these youths have to go, after they are charged, then they will have to go.”

The burglary is believed to have taken place around 2am yesterday.

BL Naidi and Sons Limited man­ager Hemant Appana said when he arrived at the warehouse office yesterday morning, he saw the padlock from the front entrance cut open.

“The thieves did not gain entry from there as they realised even after cutting the padlock for the roller door mini entrance, they needed to open a steel door,” he said.

“They cut the grills on the toilet window and gained entry. They knew that there was a safe in my office and it had money and they also knew about the CCTV.

“Police brought some young boys, they looked like teenagers for identification today (yester­day).”

Police said in a statement that the four were being questioned at the Valelevu Police Station and no charges had been laid yet.

Edited by Ivamere Nataro

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