Hours after PM announces war on crime, ‘PH’ driver kidnapped

MERE hours after Prime Minister Patrick Manning declared war on criminals, in particular kidnappers, while announcing several crime initiatives during his presentation of the National Budget on Monday, a 21-year-old Debe “PH” taxi driver was kidnapped and a $200,000 ransom demanded made for his safe return. “This Government is all about just talk and no action. They not serious about dealing with crime. They not serious at all,” declared an emotional Tara Bhulawan, 55, mother of kidnap victim David Bhulawan. The worried woman spoke to Newsday at her Ramsamog Trace, Debe, home yesterday.

David reportedly left his home on Monday to ply his 280C car for hire along the Penal-San Fernando taxi route. He never returned home and by yesterday morning, his kidnappers had telephoned his worried relatives three times, demanding the $200,000 ransom for his release. Bhulawan lives with his parents, retired taxi-driver Benjamin Bhulawan, 65, and Tara Bhulawan, 55, a primary school cleaner. While being comforted and supported by her relatives and friends yesterday, Tara, a mother of six, said they only found out that her son had been abducted when the kidnappers called one of her daughters, Hannah Mohammed, who lives a short distance away. However, contrary to police reports, Tara denied that the kidnappers had asked for  $200,000. She said they (the kidnappers) told her daughter Hannah that Bhulawan was safe. But up to late yesterday, the young man had not been released.

On the brink of tears, Tara, a cleaner at Debe Presbyterian School, said her son suffered with a kidney problem and became sick when put under any kind of “stress or pressure.” “Ah don’t have no kind of money and ah appealing to the kidnappers to let my son go. Release him please, please.....He is really ah quiet boy, he don’t do nobody nothing,” she sobbed. She recalled that her son left home early Monday morning and returned around lunchtime. He then ate lunch with his father and went back to work. Tara said when she saw night approaching and her son did not return, she began to get worried. “We wait and wait but he never came. We even called his cellular phone, but he did not answer. My children don’t go nowhere and sleep out so I was very worried,” she added. The woman said one of Bhulawan’s cousins said they saw the kidnapped man around 5 pm in the vicinity of Food City Supermarket, Debe, heading towards Penal. The Bhulawan family spent yesterday evening praying that the kidnappers would call back.