Victim snatched from bathroom

A $3 million ransom has been demanded for the safe release of the country’s first kidnap victim for the year. Robert Maharaj, 35, was snatched from his Chase Village home by three gunmen around 6 pm on Tuesday. Maharaj, the owner of Fair Deal Variety Store, was in his bathroom on Wednesday afternoon, when two gunmen broke down the bathroom door and snatched him in the full view of his children Rikash and Renata. The gunmen then bundled Maharaj into a black B-14 car and escaped.

Around 9 am yesterday, the kidnappers telephoned his wife Lynette Maharaj, and demanded the $3 million. Police reports revealed that around 5.55 pm on Tuesday, Lynette was in the store downstairs of her home at Southern Main Road in Chase Village, when three men, two armed with guns and another with a cutlass, stormed the businessplace. She was ordered to hand over cash, which amounted to $600 from the cash register, and then asked for her husband. One of the men locked Lynette in a room and then went upstairs, where Robert was in the bathroom. Lynette managed to secure a phone and alerted E-999 officers.

Officers from the Chaguanas CID and Anti-Kidnapping Squad cordoned off several areas in Longdenville and Caparo in search of the vehicle to no avail. Yesterday, at the Chase Village home of the victim, an emotional Lynette made a stirring plea to kidnappers to free her husband. She said their two children were in a state of shock.