God helped me find Saada

“GOD PUT it in a way that I would find that child,” said Deoraj Ragoonathsingh, the KFC delivery driver who rescued three-year-old kidnap victim Saada Singh in Siparia on Saturday afternoon. Ragoonathsingh, 37, believed it was fate that he found little Saada and assisted in returning her to her parents, since he was unusually late for work when he found the child wandering on Murray Trace. Ragoonathsingh said he has been deeply affected by the little girl’s abduction on Thursday.

“I was angry and sad when I saw her on the papers. And when I saw that child, I was just concerned about taking her to safety.” Yesterday when he visited Saada at her home on Hubert Rance Street, San Fernando, her parents were in high praise of him. Describing him as a “godsend,” Saada’s mother, Ria, hugged Ragoonathsingh and said:  “God kept him back for a good reason.” Ragoonathsingh, who works at KFC’s Siparia branch, said at around 2.50 pm he saw the child standing at the roadside with a back pack and a lunch bag. He described the area where Saada was found as “very lonely and bushy, with rubbish dumped along the way.” There are no houses for almost a quarter of a mile, he said.

“When I saw her I thought, ‘What would a little child be doing in this area on a Saturday with a bookbag?’ When I slowed down I recognised who she was and I stopped the car.” Ragoonathsingh said Saada was “very smart and brave,” as she asked him to “take me to my Mummy and Daddy in San Fernando.” He said he thought it wise to take the child to the nearest police station, the Siparia CID, where he turned her over to detectives. He returned to work that night, although he said it was hard for him to concentrate since his mind was focused on the incident. Saada’s parents said she was “a little jumpy” on the first night she returned home. Her father, Sean, said her earrings had been taken by her kidnappers. “When her mother tried to put on another pair of earrings for her, she said lightning would strike her ears. I guess that is what they told her as the reason they were taking them.” He said they planned to get counselling to help Saada deal with her traumatic experience.

Six involved in Saada’s kidnapping

LITTLE SAADA Singh was kept in a house at Gonsalves Village, Point Fortin, for the three days she was in captivity. According to police, six people were involved in the kidnap plot and police already have four suspects in custody. This was revealed by Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP South) Dennis Graham yesterday as he spoke of the continuing investigations into the kidnapping of the country’s youngest victim. Late Saturday evening, shortly after Saada was returned to her family at Hubert Rance Street, Vistabella, a woman and her boyfriend, were arrested in Pleasantville. Two other suspects in custody are said to be from Point Fortin.

According to Graham, the Nissan B-14 Sentra which was used to kidnap the little girl from Giselle’s Montessori was a rented vehicle. Saada’s kidnappers drove to an unknown location where cars were switched and she was transported to the house at Gonsalves Village by a man who turned himself in at the Point Fortin Police Station on Saturday at around midday. Saada was kidnapped from her pre-school on Archibald Street by a woman who pretended she was a family friend who had come to collect the child because of a family emergency. She was rescued at Murray Trace, Siparia by KFC delivery driver, Deoraj Ragoonathsingh.