Even after being warned of the risks and not having any proof that she was still alive, the family of central businesswoman Vindra Naipaul-Coolman ignored police advice and still went ahead to pay a $122,000 ransom for her release.This was the claim of PC Mahadeo Singh, a member of the Anti-Kidnapping Unit (AKU), who was assigned to advise her family shortly after she was abducted from her home at Lange Park, Chaguanas, on December 19, 2006.
Singh, the eighth witness in the trial of a dozen men accused of murdering Naipaul-Coolman, began his testimony before Justice Malcolm Holdip in the Port-of-Spain Second Criminal Court yesterday.He told the 12-member jury that around 10 pm on the night of the kidnapping his superior officers instructed him to go to the family's home to guide them on the procedure to follow during the police investigation.
He said that shortly after he arrived, Naipaul-Coolman's brother Ryan began receiving ransom calls and the family told him that they wished to pay the ransom. When asked under cross-examination if he advised them against this course of action, Singh said: "I advised them of the risks of making the payment. I told them chances are when you pay you wouldn't have the release of the victim."But he said his unit was powerless to intervene in the family's decision-making process.
"It's their money. It is not for the AKU to make the decision for the family," Singh said.Singh said he then accompanied Ryan to the family's supermarket branch at Grand Bazaar, where they met another sibling, Anand.
He said after brief private discussions between the brothers, he went to an office area in the building where he saw a pile of stacks of $100 bills on a table. The brothers put the money in a black garbage bag and it was given to brothers Abid and Farouk Nabbie, managers at the supermarket, who were selected to drop off the ransom payment.
He said the caller asked for the details of the brothers' vehicle and a contact number and only gave instructions to drive along the Churchill Roosevelt Highway near the University of the West Indies in St Augustine. They were then contacted by the caller and given further directions.Defence attorneys spent a considerable part of the cross-examination questioning Singh on the measures his unit put in place to protect the Nabbie brothers during the drop-off and to assist in the apprehension of Naipaul-Coolman's abductors.
Singh admitted that he and his colleagues in the AKU did not put any surveillance on the brothers' vehicle, nor did they follow them to the eventual drop-off point near the Priority Bus Route in Mausica. He said such measures were dependant on the "circumstances and the situation" and were not necessary in all cases.Singh was also asked whether he aware if the serial numbers of some of the money had been recorded or if some of the notes had been photocopied.
He said although he gave them his professional opinion, the family did not heed his advice, as was their prerogative.Singh was also asked if he could confirm whether investigators had contacted telecommunications providers who could assist in "triangulating" the ransom calls to determine where they were made from.
He responded by repeatedly saying that he was not aware that the AKU had equipment to trace phone calls at the time and could not confirm whether investigators sought the assistance of the telephone companies.
Cpl Peter Francis, a crime scene investigator and fingerprint expert, who began testifying on Monday, completed his evidence during the morning session of yesterday's hearing. Francis was the officer who processed the crime scene of Naipaul-Coolman's abduction and recovered shell casings, projectiles and samples of blood which are being used as evidence.Defence attorneys will continue Singh's cross-examination when the trial resumes tomorrow morning.
Who's in court
The dozen men before the jury and Justice Malcolm Holdip are: Allan "Scanny" Martin, twin brothers Shervon and Devon Peters, siblings Keida and Jamille Garcia and their older brother Anthony Dwayne Gloster, brothers Marlon and Earl Trimmingham, Ronald Armstrong, Antonio Charles, Joel Fraser and Lyndon James. A 13th man, Raphael Williams, died in prison in 2011.