Girl, 13, released after $10,000 paid

KIDNAPPERS who snatched and held 13-year-old Cindy Mahase for a $15,000 ransom demand managed to elude police and made off with $10,000 early yesterday morning.

After the money was collected, police said young Mahase was released at Damarie Hill, Turure, Sangre Grande, just before 5 am yesterday. Mahase, a Form Two student of the Five Rivers Junior Secondary School, was one of two students who were snatched for ransom last week, the other being 13-year-old Geewan Geelal. They were two of four children to have been grabbed within the last three weeks and the fifth overall for the year, the others being Micha Bernard, 9, Adriana Ramsingh, 8, and Merita Hector, 17.

Mahase was snatched Thursday night outside her San Pedro Road, Valencia home by three armed men who also took her mother, Sherrifa Mohammed and pushed her brother, Fareed into her mother’s car. During that time, Mohammed had a $10,000 cheque in hand and police said this money represented the proceeds of the sale of the woman’s roti shop in Arima earlier last week. Police said Mohammed also told the kidnappers that she only had $5,000 in a bank.  As a consequence, police said the kidnappers made a ransom demand of $15,000. The ransom  money was supposed to have been dropped off at the same roti shop, where a sting operation had been set up by members of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad (AKS) and officers of the Eastern Division.

However, sources said when the kidnappers heard the media reports, they changed the drop-off location and around 2 am yesterday,  Mohammed handed over $10,000 at Dump Road, Wallerfield. Her daughter was released close to three hours after.  A male passerby found her and took her to the Sangre Grande Police Station, after which she was medically examined and handed over to the AKS. Senior officers said they were working on several theories, among them a family link. Lawmen said they could not say who bought the roti shop, but that they were going to solve the crime soon. Meantime, police sources said the whereabouts of alleged kidnap victim Stanley Dehere were unknown up to late yesterday evening.