Businessman snatched in front of guests

CENTRAL businessman Brian Bachan was kidnapped by armed intruders who invaded his home on Wednesday night while he and his wife were entertaining guests. It is reported that during the ordeal, Bachan’s wife was forced to lie on the floor and a gun was placed to her head. “Please let him go. We have a very small business. We do not have money that they (the kidnappers) think we have. Please let him go. He is a very sick man,” cried the kidnapped man’s wife Camani. Bachan’s kidnapping brings the number of persons snatched for the year to 14. The 37-year-old man who lives with his family at Thompson Road, Palmiste, Longdenville owns and operates BB Heavy Equipment — a transport company based in Freeport.

Bachan was reportedly entertaining three guests — a couple and their son — around 9.30 pm when the five men forced their way into the house. Bachan did not put up a struggle and was taken from his home in a white car, leaving his wife and their guests horrified. Recalling the ordeal, the tearful woman said she invited their guests to spend the evening of the Shouter Baptist public holiday, at their home. The couple’s own children ages five and six, were not home at the time. Bachan and his guests were seated at the back of the house. Camani said she had just finished preparing dinner and stepped outside to chat with them when the kidnappers barged in. The woman said when she returned to the kitchen there was a loud noise and a man confronted her with a gun.

“When I went into the kitchen, I heard a noise. Then, a man with a gun came into the kitchen and told me to lie on the floor,” Camani sobbed. Within seconds, the guests rushed into the kitchen and shouted to Camani that some men took Bachan away. By that time, the gunman who had held Camani at gunpoint in the kitchen ran out of the house. Camani immediately telephoned the police. When Newsday visited the victim’s home yesterday, Camani was being hugged and consoled by relatives as she sat on a chair at the back of the house. Pleading with the kidnappers to release her husband, Camani said he suffers from high blood pressure and is diabetic.

“My husband is a diabetic. He has to take medication everyday,” the woman sobbed. She described him as a religious and kind businessman. Also making an appeal to the kidnappers for Bachan’s release was Camani’s brother, Penco. Meanwhile, there has been no word from the kidnappers of Central businessman Kalipersad Maharaj, 32, who was snatched from outside his Plover Street home in Lange Park, Chaguanas, on Thursday March 17. The family has since offered a $100,000 reward to anyone with information about Maharaj’s whereabouts. Officers of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad and Chaguanas Police Station are conducting investigations into both kidnappings.