Kidnap victims still in the dark

There have been no new developments with the missing five kidnap victims, all snatched in what has been described as the worst week ever for kidnappings in this country.

It was a week in which six people, among them three teenagers, were grabbed between last Sunday morning to Thursday night. On one occasion, two of the victims had been forced to stop by two people in a vehicle with a siren who claimed to be police. Kidnapped for the week are Yves Ayoung Chee, 18; Benedict Bharath, 18; Kendra Kissoon, 19, her boyfriend Mark Samlal, 20; Damien Schneider, 35, and 47-year-old Chaguanas businessman Woodlam Wong, who has since been released after his family paid $50,000 out of a $5 million ransom demand.

Ayoung Chee and Bharath, students of St Mary’s College, were the ones forced to stop at Marli Street because of the ‘police.’ Yesterday, acting Deputy Commissioner of Police (Operations) Glen Roach, told Sunday Newsday that they were looking at the situation with serious concern.  It is not the first time that people have been kidnapped by fake police. Roach appealed to members of the public to drive immediately to the nearest police station if they are unsure if people in vehicles, with sirens, are bonafide police officers. The senior officer also said that if members of the public must stop, then they should not do so in lonely areas, but in heavily populated ones. Another senior officer said that sirens are an unauthorised gadget on one’s vehicle, but that anyone can get a siren.