Parents want kidnapped son home for Christmas

ON the eve of Christmas, the parents of 15-year-old Shane Maharaj are begging his kidnappers to find it in their hearts to release him.

Shane, the son of Robindranath Maharaj and Zyroon Joy Maharaj, proprietors of R and J Cell-Tech, was dragged out of his father’s car at their Gulf View home on Monday night. Up to late yesterday, the teenager’s worried parents were still waiting to be contacted by their son’s kidnappers. And in a similar incident, around 9.40 am, a mere five minutes before Shane was snatched, another Gulf City businessman and his wife were accosted by two gunmen.

According to police reports, David Bharran, of Farrah Street, San Fernando, and his wife had just returned home. Bharran drove into the yard while his wife remained at the gate to lock it. Reports stated Bharran’s wife was approached by two men armed with guns. The woman started to scream and ran away. On hearing his wife’s screams for help, Bharran reversed the car and tried to hit the men. However, the gunmen opened fire on him, damaging his vehicle. The gunmen then jumped into a car and drove off. Neither Bharran nor his wife was injured.

Investigators said they have not yet determined whether the gunmen intended to kidnap or rob the couple. At the Maharaj’s Oliver Avenue home yesterday, his father recalled that he had closed his businessplace at Gulf City Shopping Complex, and arrived home at about 9.45 pm. His wife and three children — Shane, Lisa 12, Nadia, 11 — and two friends were all in his Lexus 300 RX van. “As I drove into the yard and pressed the remote to close the electronic gate, a silver-grey car, with four masked men, blocked the gate and two armed men jumped out. They came up to the car and dragged my son out and shoved him into their car and drove off,” he said.

Maharaj said he believed that the kidnappers had followed them from the mall. The father said he was worried about his son’s health because he was an asthmatic and did not have his ventolin inhaler with him. “Please don’t harm my child. Please release him safely. I want to see him home for Christmas. I am begging you,” he pleaded. The father said he recently purchased a house and did not have a lot of money in the bank.

Over the last few years, Maharaj said he had been robbed six times, the most recent being last year when he was robbed of $80,000 and one of his two daughters was almost kidnapped. Maharaj criticised Prime Minister Patrick Manning, saying, “Manning says the people kidnapping themselves. They have to kidnap one of his family for him to know how I feel  now.” His distraught wife, Zyroon, had threatened to leave the country after the robbery but instead chose to move from Soogrim Street. Councillor Carol Cuffy Dowlat, who visited the family yesterday, said Government had no control over crime, which is out of control. She suggested that Government meet with the UNC to discuss the situation because they (UNC) have a lot of ideas.