One month after he was kidnapped, taxi-driver Vivekanand Nandalall has still not been found, but the relatives of the young man are holding on to the hope that he may still be alive.
Priya Nandalall, who flew back to this country from the United States with her husband a week after her only son was snatched, keeps her hopes alive based on consultations with a pandit, a close relative said on Friday. But optimism is slowly dying, especially after sporadic calls from someone claiming he can deliver the young man's head for a price. Nandalall, 20, of Non Pariel, East Coast Demerara, was last seen on the evening of October 16, when the dispatcher of a taxi service asked him to pick up a passenger on the road at the entrance of the Imax housing scheme nearby.
His car, PGG 3846, was found the morning after the 'pick up,' abandoned on the railway embankment at Annandale, and a man subsequently contacted relatives and demanded $5 million in exchange for the young man. That sum was later reduced and early on the morning of October 18, a relative dropped off $1 million, but that failed to secure Nandalall's release. For a time after that, the kidnappers ceased all communication with the family, then later resumed calling at prolonged intervals. One of Nandalall's uncles on Friday told Stabroek News that last Thursday, a man called the family demanding an additional $500,000.
"He say he would give us his head for $500,000... I couldn't respond, I was dumbstruck. I still hoping, but in reality, why would they [the kidnappers] want to keep him so long?" the uncle asked.
He insisted that money was not an issue, since the family was willing to pay any amount to have the young man back safely, but the man said no more money would be handed over until they were able to speak to Nandalall and know that he was alive. According to the relative, Nandalall's mother "still keep looking over her shoulder every day... visiting the pandit. The pandit said he still alive, so she is living with that hope that some day she will see her son."
Meanwhile, law enforcers believe that wanted men Albert Andrews aka 'Doney,' Roger Bunbury aka 'Don Dick,' Marvin Archer aka Marvin Peters or 'Skittle,' Royston Peters and Rondell Rollins aka 'Fine Man' have some knowledge about the missing man.