A LARGE crowd yesterday bid farewell to slain taxi driver, Vivakanand Nandlall, during an inter-religious ceremony at his Non Pariel, East Coast Demerara home.
He was laid to rest at the Enterprise cemetery, also on the East Coast.
Many showed up for the funeral service, some to get a glimpse of the remains while others paid their last respects.
His parents stayed close to his coffin with his remains as the crowd grew larger.
DNA results received last week from the U.S. confirmed that the skeletal remains discovered aback of the neighbouring village of Bare Root, on March 12, last, were those of Nandlall, who was kidnapped on October 15 last year and later killed.
The human skeleton found had what appeared to be a bullet hole in the left side skull.
The skeleton was found in a drain and an autopsy showed that Nandlall was killed by a single gunshot wound to the head.
The taxi driver was kidnapped by a group of men while on a routine pickup in his silver gray motorcar PGG 3648 in the vicinity of the Annandale Railway Embankment, East Coast Demerara.
Three days after the abduction relatives dropped off a $1M ransom after a demand of $5M was made by the abductors by telephone.
Nandlall’s motorcar was found abandoned on the Annandale Railway Embankment and six set of fingerprints were discovered.
A police report on November 5, 2003 stated that 87 houses/buildings were searched and 23 persons were arrested, detained and/or questioned.
It said that area searches were conducted in Buxton, Eastville Housing Scheme, Buxton, Bare Root, Paradise, Enterprise backlands, and Bachelor’s Adventure, all on the East Coast Demerara.