SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI

Se­nior In­ves­tiga­tive Re­porter

shal­iza.has­sanali@guardian.co.tt

Cen­tral Trinidad record­ed its third kid­nap­ping in four months on Sat­ur­day night when 33-year-old busi­ness­man Su­vesh “Cook­sie” Ram­nar­ine was ab­duct­ed from Robs Bar in Cunu­pia by five men dressed in po­lice tac­ti­cal wear. A $3 mil­lion ran­som has been de­mand­ed for his safe re­turn.

Ram­nar­ine is the own­er of Cos­tu­ra, a busi­ness in War­renville which sells com­mer­cial restau­rant and su­per­mar­ket equip­ment.

Video footage showed the sus­pects pulling up in front of the bar on South­ern Main Road in a black Tuc­son with blue flash­ing lights on the dash­board. They walked through the main en­trance of the busi­ness place with guns draped over their shoul­ders.

Less than two min­utes lat­er, Ram­nar­ine was seen be­ing bun­dled in­to the Tuc­son which quick­ly drove off. The men al­so took Ram­nar­ine’s Pra­do, PCX-3087.

Ap­prox­i­mate­ly 22 min­utes af­ter the ab­duc­tion, a close fe­male rel­a­tive of Ram­nar­ine re­ceived a call from him stat­ing that he had been kid­napped and a ran­som was be­ing de­mand­ed for his re­lease. Up to yes­ter­day, he re­mained in the hands of his kid­nap­pers. His Pra­do was found aban­doned at Mon Jaloux, Cunu­pia.

Act­ing ASP Naim Gyan of Cen­tral Di­vi­sion said the po­lice have mul­ti­ple leads in­to the kid­nap­ping but are still work­ing on a mo­tive.

At Ram­nar­ine’s home, where his busi­ness is lo­cat­ed, the door was shut tight yes­ter­day. The op­er­a­tor of a near­by va­ri­ety store de­scribed Ram­nar­ine as friend­ly, pleas­ant and down to earth.

“He is not no limer and no gang­ster boy. He is very nice,” she said, adding that his ab­duc­tion had shocked the com­mu­ni­ty.

Ch­agua­nas May­or Faaiq Mo­hammed said kid­nap­pings in the bor­ough have been in­creas­ing at an alarm­ing rate and busi­ness own­ers are run­ning scared and flee­ing the coun­try.

He warned that the up­surge could “spark vig­i­lante jus­tice” and if the pub­lic does not have con­fi­dence in the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice “you would have to take mat­ters in­to your own hands. That is the cry I am hear­ing from busi­ness­men and the com­mu­ni­ty at large.”

Mo­hammed added: “’It is a sad sit­u­a­tion. It shows that busi­ness­men in the bor­ough can’t en­joy the fruits of their labour be­cause of crime. This is the third kid­nap­ping in four months. One is too much. But three that rais­es a lot of con­cern.”

The may­or said while he awaits the out­come of the in­ves­ti­ga­tions if law­men are in­volved, there are a lot of ques­tions to be an­swered.

“If this is just crim­i­nal el­e­ments in­volved in the kid­nap­ping, where are they get­ting the at­tire from? Where are they get­ting the blue lights from?” he asked.

Mo­hammed said the bor­ough has been boom­ing with busi­ness­es and ac­tiv­i­ties but com­plaints of ex­tor­tions are still sur­fac­ing.

“I wouldn’t doubt if this (Ram­nar­ine’s kid­nap­ping) have a link to some kind of ex­tor­tion,” he said. Last month, at a busi­ness meet­ing in Ch­agua­nas, Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Kei­th Scot­land as­sured the the po­lice have put sys­tems in place by the po­lice to deal with ex­tor­tion.

On Ju­ly 19, Ko­mal Ma­haraj, a 40-year-old for­mer school teacher, was kid­napped out­side a bank in Price Plaza, Ch­agua­nas. He was found on Au­gust 2.

Pierre Road, Fe­lic­i­ty busi­ness­man Sachel Kunge­be­har­ry, 32, was kid­napped on Sep­tem­ber 25 by three men dressed in po­lice op­er­a­tional wear. A $500,000 ran­som was re­port­ed­ly paid four days lat­er for his safe re­lease but his de­com­pos­ing body was found on Oc­to­ber 3 in a shal­low grave off Pokhor Road, Long­denville.

Act­ing Cpl Ashraf Mo­hammed, 45, of Chin Chin Road, Cunu­pia, and PC Ja­son Dan Michael, 34, of Char­lieville, who were last as­signed to the Ca­roni Po­lice Sta­tion, have been charged with Kunge­be­har­ry’s mur­der and mis­be­hav­ing in pub­lic of­fice by kid­nap­ping for ran­som.

The of­fi­cers were last as­signed to the Ca­roni Po­lice Sta­tion.