From prominent businessman with a prime piece of real estate on Hadfield Street accommodating a towering building with a supermarket – former MFK Trading owner, Mohamed Khan appears to have become the latest victim of a contract killing.
A decapitated corpse found at Cummings Lodge last month appeared to have been clad with some of his belongings. Final confirmation by DNA testing would be key to identifying the remains even though many of his relatives and close friends have already concluded that it is indeed him after his wife identified a pants and a belt which were found on the corpse.
From all indications whoever the person is was tortured as the head was severed from the body and placed in a plastic bag, teeth were knocked out and the legs are missing. Whoever the victim, this type of killing is a hallmark of underworld connections.
Shortly after he was shot and wounded back in July, Khan had insisted to Stabroek News that there was a price on his dead. If the corpse is indeed him, this would confirm that.
Khan started out in a small-scale trading business before later building his landmark enterprise on Hadfield Street in the early 2000s.
This milestone in his life marked the birth of MFK Trading and it was through this venture that his prominence in the business community rose. He also hosted a television programme which promoted the buy local concept.
In May 2008, Khan however informed that he had to scale down his operations, citing a decrease in sales due to the current business climate and the implementation of the Value Added Tax (VAT). It was from this point that he began to sell his properties.
His staff complement which stood at 102 was cut to 18. When he spoke to Stabroek News, he still had ownership of the Hadfield Street property but subsequently decided to sell it.
Days before he had spoken with this newspaper about his business woes, he had revealed that he had been receiving threatening calls from unknown person/s. The callers, according to him, would state “we coming foh you”. He at the time was responding to this newspaper’s queries on reports that he had been kidnapped.
He stated that the caller had also said that he had “hooligans”, working at MFK Trading and he “had no problem in going into Congress Place and being protected by Congress Place.” He had received similar calls years earlier during the crime wave period.
The sale of the Hadfield Street property in 2010 was to trigger a series of hair-raising incidents for the two parties involved.
Khan’s cousin, who asked that his name be withheld, recalled that after Khan was shot in July this year, he was arrested by police on suspicion of committing arson in 2012 on the Hadfield Street property which he had sold in 2010 after his business declined. “They hold he up for suspect arson. They claim that is he bun down de place,” the man said.
In May 2012, the building which then housed G Bacchus Enterprises was hit by a fire which caused significant damage to the interior. The owner, Goolmohamed Rahaman, had estimated his losses in the vicinity of $400 million stating that the property was insured for $110 million, a sum which was inadequate for him to restart the business.
Based on information received by this newspaper an explosion was heard sometime after 8 pm and smoke was noticed coming from the back of the bottom flat.
The owner had expressed suspicion about how the fire started.
The fire service was called shortly after the fire was spotted and responded immediately. At one point a fire truck with a hydraulic platform arrived at the scene to assist in getting fire-fighters to the upper floors of the four-storey structure. Thick black smoke spewed from all the openings in the building as the firemen experienced difficulty gaining access to the cramped sections of the building.
Rahaman had said too that he began the process of building the outlet in 2010 and paid the last installment on it in February.
He said that he opened a supermarket on the bottom flat and an electrical store on the second floor in late 2010. The other two floors were being used for storage.
In October, 2012, Rahaman was hit by another fire. This time at his Bourda Market stall. While the Guyana Fire Service responded quickly and put the fire out, Rahaman said that there was water damage of around $10 million. He had showed this newspaper evidence of what appeared to be an attempt set the stall afire with gasoline.
Rahaman said then he suspected a man he had a business transaction with and he said he hoped that the police could issue a wanted bulletin for this individual.
He explained that he had conducted a business transaction with the individual but after he had paid the agreed price and “the papers done write up and so on then he come and demand more money from me.” The man said he refused to pay any additional sum since as far as he was concerned the business transaction was over.
In April 2013, Rahaman was hit by another suspicious fire, this time at his bond in Campbellville. He was estimated to have lost tens of millions of dollars. About two months prior to this blaze another nearby bond suffered a fire.
Khan’s cousin told Stabroek News that when he was arrested after being shot in July, he had to help him pay the $300,000 station bail that police put him on over the Hadfield Street fire.
The police had given him a date to return to the station. The man said Khan visited his home with his two daughters and indicated that he would be travelling to Venezuela but would be returning to Guyana so as to check in with the police on the stipulated date. Khan had been living in the neighbouring country for about five years and would often return home to conduct business.
He said Khan complained to him several times that he was owed some $80 million for the Hadfield Street property and that “de people don’t want give he”. He recalled Khan saying that he “going steady to collect” but was being pushed around.
Meanwhile Khan’s wife who resides in Venezuela expressed a similar view. The woman told Stabroek News that the selling of the building was his downfall.
“A mistake of him was to sell his building. After he sold his last property everything became worse for us. We had to leave Guyana,” the woman stressed.
Being sought
The woman who asked to remain anonyomous said that just before Khan left Venezuela, he told her that he had received a call that someone was looking for him.
“Everytime he comes and have to leave to go Guyana he said to me that he is afraid that when he leave home he don’t know if he will come back,” she said.
According to her when he left he told her that in Guyana he will be meeting with his lawyer and was going to the interior to look after his business. Once those things were done, he was to return home.
She questioned how one can live comfortably knowing that there is someone out there looking for them. The woman did not provide any specific information as to why someone was after Khan.
“Allah is the one who seeing everything. He is the one who knows everything,” she stressed.
The woman told this newspaper that she spoke to Khan every day since his departure from Venezuela up until August 21 when she was unable to make contact with him. His cell phone was turned off.
“A couple days pass and I felt something was not right. Because he never did that…he always keep in touch…he always worry about his family, his kids,” she stressed.
Positive
The woman said she is certain that the remains are that of her husband.
She said that when she first got word that a body was found she dismissed any thought that it might be that of her husband. “I was keeping hope that this just was a bad dream and that I was going to see my husband back. But after they said that the body was an Indian person we decided with family members to investigate,” she ex-plained.
The woman said that when she got the pictures that were taken of the body she was shocked when she recognised Khan’s pants and belt. “That was his clothes no one else,” she said positively.
“Allah is the most knowing and whoever involved in this can be hidden from justice but not from his eyes,” she stressed.
She said that this entire situation is painful for her especially given the fact that she is at a loss as to how to explain this situation to her small daughters.
The woman said that they had plans and now they will never become a reality.
She said that while her husband was a businessman, he was known for helping those in needs and was devoted to his religion.
Relatives here have since said that once a post-mortem examination confirms evidence of a gunshot wound on the corpse they would accept that it is Khan’s. Relatives are also looking at conducting DNA testing on the remains.
