The police have denied a report in today’s Sunday Stabroek that they had received a tip that kidnapped man Rajendra Singh was in an abandoned Goedverwagting and acted too slowly in searching for him.
The statement follows:
The Guyana Police Force is responding to an article published in the Sunday Stabroek News today Sunday April 13, 2014, under the heading “Police told where kidnap victim held; did not search house until too late.”
In the article it is stated that the police had been informed that murdered car dealer Rajendra Singh was being held captive in an abandoned house at Goedverwagting, East Coast Demerara, but ranks only visited the location hours later when he had been removed by his kidnappers.
The Guyana Police Force wishes to categorically deny that at any time during the course of the ongoing investigations into the kidnap and murder of businessman Rajendra Singh, has any information been received from any source that he was being held at any time in an abandoned house at Goedverwagting.
In responding to the report received, Rajendra Singh’s motor vehicle was recovered on the railway embankment at Goedverwagting on the very night of his kidnapping. As a result, intensive patrols comprising police ranks and community policing personnel were mounted in the Goedverwagting area, but no useful information was obtained nor was anything suspicious seen or found.
The following day, Sunday, the patrols continued and were extended to Plaisance and Sparendaam, including the squatting areas. Based on information received a house at Bel Air, Georgetown, and one at Yarrowkabra on the Soesdyke/Linden Highway were searched. A woman was arrested at Yarrowkabra and subsequently released.
On Monday April 07, 2014, consequent upon information received the police conducted searches on four houses of the relatives of a family at Plaisance, East Coast Demerara, but nothing of evidential value was found.
The next day, Tuesday, further searches were conducted on the same four homes in addition to a fifth home belonging to another family member, also at Plaisance, but again nothing suspicious was found.
On the very Tuesday the police received information that the kidnap victim was in a house in the Goedverwagting Squatting area and searches were conducted on the target house and two others in the squatting area, as well as an abandoned ice factory at Claybrick Road, Goedverwagting. However, nothing of evidential value was found.
The Guyana Police Force reiterates that at no time was information received about Rajendra Singh being held in an abandoned house at Goedverwagting, nor about him being removed from the location in a white mini-bus.
During the ongoing investigations and based on information received a number of buildings were searched in the Goedverwagting area, but no abandoned house was searched.
The well-placed sources who allegedly have given the information about the abandoned house at Goedverwagting to the Stabroek News did not pass such information to the police.
The police have acted professionally, and are continuing to do so, in keeping with its operational procedures, in the investigations into the kidnap and murder of businessman Rajendra Singh.
Six men are in police custody and we have applied for and received an extension of their time in custody until Wednesday, in order to continue with the investigations.
