Another child snatched

THE teenaged son of a San Juan dry-goods and liquor businessman was snatched at gunpoint yesterday morning in Aranjuez while being driven to school. Gewan Geelal, 13, is the third child to be kidnapped in the last month.

Senior police officers yesterday expressed concern at this trend noting that since adults who consider themselves targets have increased security around them, the criminals are now targetting their children. This was the case yesterday as Gewan’s father had been kidnapped one year ago. And while worried relatives of Gewan would not speak to reporters, police sources said he was grabbed by the neck while a gun was placed to his head and pulled out of the car in which he was being driven to school.

Up to late yesterday evening, police sources said the persons who abducted Gewan had not made any ransom demands. Gewan’s father Premnath, 44, who operates the family business - Geelal’s Dry Goods Store on El Socorro Road, San Juan - was kidnapped in March 2002. According to police reports, around 7 am yesterday, Khaman Maharaj of Chootoo Street, Aranjuez, who drives Gewan from home to the Trincity East College, arrived at the Geelal residence and collected the youngster. While Maharaj was driving through Aranjuez to pick up another student, a grey B13 Sentra sped alongside his car and forced him off the road. Two armed men alighted from the Sentra and ran to Maharaj’s car. One of the gunmen quickly snatched Gewan by the neck, dragged him from Maharaj’s car and forced him into the Sentra which sped off. A report was made to the Barataria police. Anti-Kidnapping Squad (AKS) officers led by Snr Supt Gilbert Reyes, including ASP Henry Millington and Sgt Netram Kowlessar arrived at the Geelal residence to commence investigations.

North-Eastern Division police, co-ordinated by Snr Supt Desmond Lambert, led by Supt Waldron Bishop and including ASP Gregory Correia and Sgt Mongal Hazarie, arrived shortly and also took statements. When Newsday arrived on the scene, worried-looking relatives quickly bolted a large iron sliding gate and shouted, “we have nothing to say to the media right now.” The store remained closed yesterday. Gewan’s father Premnath, who has three sons, was shot in both legs and kidnapped on Monday March 25, 2002 as he was closing the dry goods store located at the front of his home. Although a one million dollar ransom was demanded, Geelal managed to sneak out of the Couva house where he was being kept the following day. Two men have since been charged.

Gewan Geelal is the third child to be kidnapped within the past three weeks in what investigators say is developing into a “worrying trend”. On Saturday March 15, nine-year-old Micha Bernard was snatched at gunpoint outside his Don Miguel Road, San Juan home as he was riding a bicycle. $300,000 was demanded for Bernard’s safe release. Four days later, Bernard was found wandering near the Aranjuez Villas by police, who had received an anonymous telephone call which indicated that the child had been freed. Six hours after Bernard was found, eight-year-old Adriana Ramsingh, daughter of Ramesh Ramsingh, who operated Ramsingh’s Glass Specialists in San Juan, was snatched outside her 11th Street Barataria home.

She was rescued five hours later by police who found her bound and gagged in a shack in Champs Fleurs. Police sources told Newsday that several very prominent businessmen have resorted to using armed security guards to escort their children to and from their schools, while others have taken the decision to send their children to schools abroad. Sgt Mongal Hazarie of the Barataria CID is investigating the Geelal abduction.