More businessmen to be kidnapped

WHILE Princes Town businesswoman Tricia Suryadevera was being kept hostage, she overheard the men who had kidnapped her discussing a list of other persons, including businessmen from the Princes Town area, who were being targetted for kidnapping.

This was revealed by Inverness/ Princes Town councillor, Clifton De Coteau, who chaired a meeting of concerned Princes Town residents at the Princes Town Regional Corporation on Thursday night. The meeting was called to discuss crime. During the highly charged meeting, Suryadevera’s brother Taurel Shirkissoon, disclosed to a shocked audience, the ordeal that his sister underwent while being in captivity. Shirkissoon also lambasted the media, saying that they had reported the entire kidnapping inaccurately. Suryadevera was kidnapped on September 15 from her businessplace —Trinkets Ltd — located on the ground floor of her High Street, Princes Town home. A ransom demand of $2 million was made for her safe release. Eight days later, Suryadevera, 26, was released along the Churchill Roosevelt Highway, after an undisclosed sum of money was paid.

An emotional Shirkissoon told the crowd, comprising mainly businessmen, that his sister endured eight days of suffering in which she ate only crix and drank water. She also saw her kidnappers digging her grave, next to where she was being kept in an open field. “She was kicked, beaten and slapped when negotiations went bad. They kicked her to wake up. Sexual molestation was definitely an option on the minds of those people,” Shirkissoon added,  “It’s really a  touching experience, she was very traumatised by the entire ordeal, but she always kept hope and she is strong now.”

Shirkissoon, who was accompanied to the meeting by  his father, Princes Town business magnate Teeluck Shirkissoon,  described his sister’s kidnappers as an “unscrupulous gang,”  who are aware of people’s personal finances.  However, during his address Shirkissoon  turned his guns on the media and asked one cameraman,  “of what benefit was your organisation to my family.” He went on to accuse reporters of inaccurately reporting the ordeal of his sister. He also said that reports on the kidnapping were “unfounded and unclaimed.” He further vented his feelings by saying the media was only out to hurt them (the family), just to earn a salary. He added, “nothing in the media was actually true. Why did the media cover the family and family business?” During his tirade, no one at the head table intervened, while persons in the audience, which included prominent attorney, Subhas Panday, listened in silence.

When he was finished some applauded while others shook his hand. The media who gathered to cover the meeting stepped out of the meeting for a brief moment after persons in the gathering verbally objected to having their pictures taken or having the meeting recorded. When reporters and photographers returned, some persons in the gathering shouted their intention to boycott the media. Also speaking at the meeting was former kidnap victim Saran Billy Kissoondan, who called on the government to do more in the  fight against crime. He said that the Prime Minister’s comment that the average citizen was safe, told the criminals that they were not doing enough. “Right now I am in the process of trying to send away the rest of my family from this country,” Kissoondan said. The gathering held the general consensus that they would send an affirmative plan of action to the Police Commissioner, on ways to deal  with the crime problem in the Princes Town district. The businessmen said they also intended to hold peace marches and also threatened to close  business as a form of protest on October 6, which incidentally is Budget Day.