'Kidnapped' taxi driver still in custody as cops check out story
Stabroek News
July 23, 2004
Thirty-two-year-old Seenarine Persaud, who claimed he was kidnapped by gunmen who forced him to drink alcohol and smoke cocaine, yesterday remained in police custody at Cove and John on the East Coast as investigations continue.
Stabroek News understands that lawmen are having a hard time believing the man's story and are checking it out carefully.
The Foulis, East Coast Demerara man went missing on Tuesday night, hours after he started working for the first time at the Vicks Taxi Service in Enmore. His employers felt he had been kidnapped after they heard someone ordering that the radio set be turned off. That was the last time they heard from him, shortly after he had made a drop at Haslington, ECD.
The next time the man was seen, was when he walked into his sister's Middle Road, East La Penitence home at around 3 pm on Wednesday.
He then went to the Ruimveldt Police Station where he told the police that gunmen had entered his car and told him to drive and he complied. He said the men dropped off a package in Annandale then took him to two other locations - the Linden-Soesdyke Highway and Timehri. He was then forced to drive to Albouystown where he was blindfolded, placed in a shop in the area and forced to drink alcohol and smoke cocaine.
The police yesterday took the man to the Annandale location where he said the men dropped off the package and also to Haslington where he said the men entered the car. The man maintains that he was kidnapped, but his employer, Vickram Ritlall is also having difficulty believing his story.
Ritlall had told this newspaper on Wednesday night that they had searched several East Coast locations after the man disappeared. He said on Wednesday afternoon someone informed them that the car had hit a lamppost. He believes that because one of the car doors was damaged the man made up the story since it was his first day at work.
The car the man was driving was found abandoned on the Ruimveldt Public Road at around 2.20 am on Wednesday.