Young wife kidnapped

ONE year after an attempt to kidnap prominent Princes Town businessman Teeluck Shirkis-soon failed, his 26-year-old daughter Tricia Suryadevera was snatched by three armed men during a daring early morning kidnapping at her Princes Town businessplace yesterday.

And in an immediate response to the kidnapping, Acting Commis-sioner of Police (CoP) Everald Snaggs yesterday morning ordered an islandwide road-block exercise in an effort to rescue Suryadevera. However, up to yesterday, Surya-devera was still a prisoner. After lunchtime yesterday the family received a phone call from the kidnappers, who confirmed that they had Suryadevera, and said that they would call again with their ransom demand. The country’s latest kidnapping came in the wake of a text message sent over the weekend via the Internet to thousands of cellular phone users, which seemed to threaten the abduction of someone’s daughter.

According to police reports, around 9 am, Suryadevera, who owns and operates Trinkets Ltd, located on the ground floor of her palatial home on High Street, Princes Town, had just opened the businessplace when the three masked gunmen stormed into the building. Four employees were ordered to the back of the building where they were told to lie on the floor. One of the men then grabbed Suryadevera and dragged her out of the store and into a waiting B13 Sentra. They then sped off with their victim. As soon as a report of the kidnapping was made to the police, Acting CoP Snaggs ordered heads of all Police Divisions in Trinidad to set up roadblocks and conduct car-to-car searches in the hopes of rescuing Suryadevera. On hearing of his daughter’s abduction, Shirkissoon, also known as Trevor Teelucksingh, proprietor of Teelucksingh’s Furniture Appli-ances and General Store, also on High Street, Princes Town, held a prayer service with relatives for the safe return of his daughter. When Newsday visited his businessplace located under his house, Teelucksingh made appeals to the kidnappers to “return the child safely.” The worried man told Newsday he was at his businessplace when someone in a car told him his daughter had been kidnapped.

According to Teelucksingh, both he and his daughter did not receive any prank calls prior to the kidnapping. He also said that he did not receive the threatening cellphone text message — “Aissa handle your REAL business before you lose your daughter....that is if you still care.” Teelucksingh said he did not know whether his daughter’s kidnapping was linked to the text message. Suryadevera lived with her husband, Ravi Suryadevera, whom she married seven months ago.  Teelucksingh escaped a similar fate on June 27 last year when around 9 pm, three masked gunmen accosted him while he was sitting in front of his businessplace and attempted to bundle him into a car.  Teelucksingh cried out for help as he struggled with the men, who retreated to the car and sped off. However, during the struggle, the men ripped off two gold chains valued $15,000 from Teelucksingh’s neck and dealt him several gun-butt blows to his head. One year later, police have not arrested anyone in connection with the failed kidnap attempt on Teelucksingh. Visiting the scene yesterday was a party of officers from the Princes Town police station and members of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad (AKS) including Supt Mohammed, ASP Henry Millington, Sgts Maynard, Singh, Persad and Kowlessar. Investigations are continuing.