– crime chief
Amid growing fears about the fate of the owner of Jiffi Lubes seven days after he went missing, Crime Chief, Seelall Persaud, yesterday said that the police have arrested one man and have received information that Farouk Kalamadeen was abducted.
Persaud did not divulge much, but speaking to reporters yesterday at Hous-ton, East Bank Demerara during a function, he said that the man in custody was arrested based upon information received by the police. He said that they had received information suggesting that Kalamadeen had been abducted. According to Persaud, the police were not aware of any demands for ransom and as such, they were not treating the matter as a kidnapping.
Meanwhile, Stabroek News was told that Kalamadeen might have been picked up by foreigners with whom he had problems, but the man’s wife, Nariman Kalamadeen, said that was not so. “My husband was not involved in anything illegal I can attest to that. We have been involved in business together from day one,” she declared.
Mrs Kalamadeen said she could not understand why people were suggesting that the former motor racer was involved in illegal business.
As time elapses many are fearful of the fate of the Jiffy Lubes owner, who disappeared some where in the Houston, East Bank Demerara area while jogging last Wednesday morning.
Stabroek News was told that the businessman was snatched by unidentified men in a dark-coloured car. The man’s family maintained that he did not have any problems with anyone as far as they were aware. They said there had been no demand for ransom.
Mrs Kalamadeen told Stabroek News last week that she was confident that her husband had not run off from her and his family and it was clear he was being held against his will. However, she could not say why her husband was being held.
Relatives said that police had been monitoring the situation and had been in contact with them on a regular basis providing updates on their investigations. The 54-year-old Kalamadeen left his D’Aguiar Park, East Bank Demerara home around 6 am on Wednesday to go on his daily jog. He has not been seen since. He was last seen wearing a blue sweat suit, track boots and a cap. The businessman’s wife said that they have since checked every corner in the Houston, Mandela Back Road area, interviewed almost all the security guards in the block and no one has a clue as to where the former motor racer might be. “He is not on the track where he left to go, the hospitals do not have him; we combed the area thoroughly. So then he is being held against his will,” Mrs Kalamadeen asserted on Thursday last.
According to her from all appearances, her husband might have been snatched as soon as he exited the gated Barrington Place, D’Aguiar Park community, noting that none of the security guards along the route he walked every day saw him on Wednesday morning.
PNCR member and former MP, Lurlene Nestor, in a recent letter to editor urged an investigation into the phantom squad activities and the violence that broke out along the East Coast Demerara following the 2002 jailbreak. Nestor pointed out in her letter, which appeared in this newspaper on Saturday, that such an investigation had become necessary, since there are emerging situations that resemble that of the notorious “death squad period, 2002-2004”. She said the recent slaying of Marcyn King, sister of an alleged mastermind of the recent massacres, painted a picture of revenge killing similar to that of George Bacchus, late death squad informant. She said other situations which begin to mirror the phantom squad period were the recent killing of George Barton and now the disappearance of Kalamadeen reminiscent of the numerous young men who remained absent from their homes after they disappeared during that infamous time.
