Soldier grabbed in South, $1.2M ransom demanded

IN the presence of his wife and one-year-old daughter, a 27-year-old soldier was dragged from his vehicle and bundled into another car by two masked gunmen on Monday night in San Fernando. The kidnappers have demanded a $1.2 million ransom for the release of Timothy Ramnanan of Drayton Street, San Fernando. Newsday was told yesterday that the Trinidad and Tobago Regiment has embarked on its own investigations while the Anti-Kidnapping Squad has launched an islandwide hunt for the soldier and his abductors. According to police reports, Ramnanan was with his wife Ameela and their one-year-old daughter around 9 pm,  when they pulled up in front of Hosein’s Grocery on Leotaud Street, San Fernando.

According to the report, Ramnanan left his wife and daughter sitting in the silver Honda CVR vehicle, and went into the grocery to make a purchase. The report stated that when Ramnanan came out of the grocery and was about to enter his vehicle, a white B-14 car with four masked men pulled alongside the soldier’s vehicle. Police said two of the armed occupants  jumped out of the B-14 and accosted Ramnanan. Police said one of the men pointed a gun at Ameela’s head, while the other  dragged Ramnanan out of his vehicle. The men, police told Newsday, shoved the soldier into the backseat of the B-14, and sped off. Police said Ameela began screaming during the incident, and called the police on her cellular phone.

A businessman who spoke to Newsday anonymously said that around 9 pm, Ramnanan, who was dressed in plain clothes, bought an Icy hot from the grocery and left. The businessman said that ten minutes after Ramnanan left the grocery, he heard a woman screaming. Believing at the time that a woman was being robbed, the businessman told Newsday that he got scared and ran to the back of the business place and hid. When Newsday visited Ramnanan’s home yesterday, there were soldiers mingling in front with two Trinidad and Tobago Regiment jeeps parked on the road. Ramnanan’s grandfather, Sewdath Ali, told Newsday that a captain in the Regiment had instructed him not to speak publicly about the incident. “This is a very dangerous thing and the army in control of the situation. It is one of their people, you know. If you want to know anything, you have to ask them,” Ali said. The soldier’s father lamented, “If army people are being kidnapped, what kind of country this coming to.”