By Zoisa Fraser and Gaulbert Sutherland
A 24-year-old gold dealer who was taken off a Bartica-bound boat on Thursday and robbed of $17M by three coast guards before being dumped was still missing last night and feared murdered in a scandal that yesterday also ensnared the police.
Dweive Kant Ramdass remained missing up to press time even though the three Guyana Defence Force (GDF) coast guards were taken to the area where it was said that they murdered and dumped him. The bulk of the money has since been recovered, but two police ranks are now being fingered in stashing $4M of the cash.
Numerous police sources yesterday informed Stabroek News that the Coast Guard ranks implicated in the crime admitted during interrogation that they strangled Ramdass before dumping his body in the Essequibo River in the vicinity of Caiman Hole. The soldiers were taken to the alleged dumping ground by police yesterday and despite efforts searchers came up empty handed.
Police in a release last evening described the incident as a robbery/abduction, though several persons had reported to this newspaper that the man went willingly into the coast guard vessel with a box containing the money. Sources say it appeared as if protection money might have been paid in the past for the escort of persons with large sums of money to Bartica. This may explain how the coast guard men might have known that Ramdass was travelling with a lot of cash.
According to the release, the police are investigating a report whereby Ramdass of 93 Third Avenue Bartica was allegedly abducted by “three men in uniform similarly worn by those of the Coast Guard” and taken away in a boat between 3 and 3:30 pm in the Essequibo River.
Ramdass, the police said, has not been seen since and it is alleged he had $17M in his possession to transact business for his employer.
Police, the release said, had since arrested seven persons and recovered $12.7M of which $4.3M is unaccounted for.
Additionally, it said two policemen are in custody pending investigations into the amount of money outstanding.
For its part, the army issued a statement yesterday in which Chief of Staff, Commodore Gary Best admitted the guilt of his ranks, who are stationed at Fort Island, saying that he condemned their actions in the strongest possible terms.
“Their action in no way represents the ethos and character of the GDF. It is reprehensible and will be met with the full force of the law”, Best, the former head of the Coast Guard, said in the statement.
An inquiry is to be launched into the circumstances of the dastardly act and it is clear from
their initial reports, Best said, that there was “a breakdown in the command and leadership of the structure at this unit for which strong administrative action will be taken”.
Despite these developments he assured citizens, the fishing community, small boats and other vessel operators that the force subscribes to the highest professional standards and will continue to discharge its mandate.
The Chief of Staff expressed regret to Ramdass’ relatives over the incident.
The statement added that the Coast Guard will help in the search for Ramdass until he was found but a relative of the man told this newspaper last evening, that the army played no known part in the mission yesterday.
Police Commissioner Henry Greene also condemned the attack, saying that the involvement of the soldiers is of great concern to the security forces.
Speaking to the media yesterday at the Police Force’s annual presentation of bursaries and awards, Greene said that they were alerted that Ramdass had vanished while transporting a large amount of money.
According to him, diligent inquiries led investigators to three suspects, who are members of the GDF and three of their relatives, who had large sums of money in their possession.
Stabroek News understands that a woman is among the relatives arrested. Two of the Coast Guard ranks are privates while the other is a corporal.
When he spoke to the media around 1:45 pm, Greene said that they were hoping for the best in recovering Ramdass but the reports they have received so far suggest that “this young man may have been dumped into the river having been assaulted”.
Greene stated that the police did not have any information as to whether he was dumped alive.
Ramdass’s sister, Nirvana Burnette told Stabroek News that her brother had been heading to Bartica at around 3:30 pm that day. She stated that he was supposed to travel on one of the regular passenger boats and had been waiting for it to be filled.
She related that while waiting, he was accosted by the Coast Guard ranks and they called him aside and requested that he open the box which contained the money. According to her, he opened the bag slightly and they told him to close it back, after reportedly seeing what was inside. She said that they then “ordered” him to get into their boat. “They took him away”, she said.
Burnette related that there was usually a bodyguard with Ramdass but he was not around at the time. She said that her brother, while standing at the beach, had been speaking with a girl that he knew but she had shortly before moved off.
Efforts later to contact Ramdass on his cellular phone were futile as it was turned off, she said. When he had not turned up at Bartica, an alarm was raised and the man’s employer as well as his brother, who resides in the city, journeyed to Parika. Contact was made with a coast guard official at Parika and several boat captains recalled seeing Ramdass in the boat being taken away.
The official attempted to get into contact with the ranks and after several tries it was answered but the only thing that was heard was a voice asking why the person had answered the phone.
When the coast guard ranks returned to Parika, they reportedly said that Ramdass had paid them $12,000 to drop him off at Bonasika, a few miles from Parika. But he had never gone there before, Burnette said. Police arrested the men and some of the money was recovered from a sister of one of the ranks who had turned up hurriedly. She was also arrested.
Ramdass, according to Burnette, had been working with the company for about six months. When a senior company official was contacted last evening, he said that he could not say anything at the time.
From Thursday night until the early hours of yesterday, relatives undertook a search operation. The search continued yesterday but up to press time Ramdass had not been found.
Burnette said that the search party utilized hooks at the place and paid a diver to search the area but pointed out that they did not find anything. She said that they had accepted that Ramdass was dead. “We think so…all we want to do is find our brother and find some closure”, she stated last night. “We combed the entire area”, she added.
The woman asserted that it was only the family and the man’s employer who were engaged in the search and the woman expressed disapproval that no assistance was forthcoming from the GDF. The police were not part of the search either, she noted, adding that they plan to pay a visit to the Commissioner.
Police implicated
Yesterday Greene revealed to the media that two of his ranks have been held after it was suspected that they stole some of the recovered money.
According to him, two of the men’s relatives were arrested with over $5M each while the third had over $6M in his bag. He put the figure of stolen money at around $17.5M.
Commissioner Greene explained that the man with the $6M claimed that he was given the bag with money but did not count it. However Greene pointed out that based on what they know his bag had to contain more that $6M.
But when it was handed over by the ranks there was just over $1M inside.
“So it is logical to conclude that the policeman has to explain what happen with this money between himself and the man. The man is saying that I had the money and the policeman took the bag with the money”, he stated.
He added that as a result of this development the duo was arrested pending further inquiries into the disappearance of more than $4M.
Police sources told this newspaper that the coast guard men had signed confession statements and yesterday afternoon, they led investigators to Caiman Hole, just off Fort Island, where they said, Ramdass was dumped. The three young ranks, wore shackles on their feet and after being heckled by bystanders, one responded that he was a “bad man”.
Asked about speculation that this incident may have been linked to another in the same area less than two weeks ago, where two men were found dead in a shattered boat and a 10-year-old boy missing, Greene said that they don’t have such evidence but since it has been brought to his attention, investigators will look into it.
