KEVON FELMINE 

Se­nior Re­porter

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

A po­lice cor­po­ral, con­sta­ble, and an­oth­er man re­main in cus­tody as in­ves­ti­ga­tions con­tin­ue in­to the kid­nap­ping and mur­der of Cunu­pia used car deal­er, Sachel Kunge­be­har­ry.

Of­fi­cers of the An­ti-Kid­nap­ping Unit have in­ter­viewed the sus­pects, but are still await­ing fur­ther in­for­ma­tion, in­clud­ing the re­sults of an au­top­sy, which is ex­pect­ed at the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre, St James, on Mon­day.

On Thurs­day, Long­denville po­lice dis­cov­ered Kunge­be­har­ry’s body in a shal­low grave in Long­denville. The 32-year-old, who lived on Pierre Road, Fe­lic­i­ty, was found af­ter po­lice re­ceived a re­port from Crime Stop­pers of a foul stench at Pokhor Road.

Of­fi­cers fol­lowed a grav­el path, then ven­tured 60 feet in­to a dirt road where they no­ticed a dis­turbed area in the mid­dle of the mud-cov­ered road with a foot pro­trud­ing from the ground.

A team was brought in to ex­ca­vate the area, un­cov­er­ing a de­com­pos­ing body buried two feet un­der­ground. The corpse was found face-down with both hands bound.

Ini­tial­ly, Kunge­be­har­ry’s fam­i­ly was un­able to iden­ti­fy the body as their miss­ing rel­a­tive. How­ev­er, crime scene in­ves­ti­ga­tors lat­er used fin­ger­print im­pres­sions to con­firm Kunge­be­har­ry's iden­ti­ty.

Ac­cord­ing to ini­tial re­ports, three masked men—two dressed in po­lice tac­ti­cal uni­forms and one in civil­ian cloth­ing—ab­duct­ed Kunge­be­har­ry near En­deav­our Road Ex­ten­sion, Ch­agua­nas, us­ing a marked po­lice ve­hi­cle.

Fol­low­ing the ab­duc­tion, sev­er­al po­lice units, in­clud­ing the An­ti-Kid­nap­ping Unit, Homi­cide Bu­reau of In­ves­ti­ga­tions, Pro­fes­sion­al Stan­dards Bu­reau, Spe­cial In­ves­ti­ga­tions Unit, Fi­nan­cial In­ves­ti­ga­tions Unit, Cy­ber and So­cial Me­dia Unit, and oth­er in­tel­li­gence agen­cies, launched an in­ves­ti­ga­tion and be­gan gath­er­ing in­tel­li­gence to track down the per­pe­tra­tors.

It is al­so al­leged that a $500,000 ran­som was paid for Kunge­be­har­ry's re­lease.

In a me­dia re­lease, Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher con­firmed that Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Suzette Mar­tin and oth­er se­nior of­fi­cers had met with Kunge­be­har­ry’s fam­i­ly, who had in­formed them of a ran­som de­mand for his safe re­turn.

"We deeply re­gret the al­leged in­volve­ment of law en­force­ment of­fi­cers, who are sworn to pro­mote law and or­der, in this heinous act," said Hare­wood-Christo­pher.

"We con­tin­ue to face chal­lenges with the pres­ence of er­rant of­fi­cers among the ranks of the Trinidad & To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS). While these in­ci­dents are con­cern­ing, we urge the pub­lic to al­low the in­ves­ti­ga­tions to pro­ceed with­out in­ter­fer­ence and to avoid pre­ma­ture con­clu­sions."

She em­pha­sised that such an in­ci­dent goes against every prin­ci­ple of the TTPS and threat­ens to erode pub­lic trust in the po­lice force.

"The TTPS is de­ter­mined to ad­dress all in­stances of mis­con­duct by any of­fi­cer with un­wa­ver­ing im­par­tial­i­ty, metic­u­lous scruti­ny, and swift ac­tion," she added.

"We are res­olute in our com­mit­ment to rid the Ser­vice of of­fi­cers who be­tray the trust of the cit­i­zens and are un­faith­ful to their oath of of­fice. Those found guilty will be re­moved from du­ty and face the full ex­tent of the law."

Hare­wood-Christo­pher al­so ex­pressed her con­do­lences to Kunge­be­har­ry’s fam­i­ly and the en­tire com­mu­ni­ty of Pierre Road, Fe­lic­i­ty.

"The TTPS ful­ly recog­nis­es the sever­i­ty of this tragedy and the pro­found pain it has in­flict­ed on the vic­tim’s fam­i­ly, friends, and the wider com­mu­ni­ty. We ex­tend our deep­est con­do­lences and will en­sure that jus­tice is served."

She said the TTPS is de­ter­mined to pros­e­cute the mat­ter to the fullest.