$1M bail for ‘Trini’ on fake kidnap charges
Trinidad national, Sawak Maraj
Trinidad national, Sawak Maraj

THE 33-year-old Trinidad national who was charged and remanded last month for faking his own kidnapping here in Guyana and demanded US$700,000 from his relatives back home, was on Tuesday released on $1M bail.

Sawak Maraj was charged last month before Chief Magistrate,Ann McLennan and denied the charges of giving the police wrong information and conspiracy to commit a felony.
Particulars of the charge alleged that on October 27 at Georgetown, Maraj knowningly gave false information to the police stating that he was kidnapped and his abductors had demanded $700,000US for his release.

It is alleged that Maraj on the same day while at the Madewini Resort on the Linden/Soesdyke Highway, conspired with two other persons in assisting to negotiate to obtain a ransom of $700,000 US.
During Maraj’s reappearance before the Chief Magistrate on Tuesday, his attorney Bernard DaSantos made an application for bail.

The Magistrate ruled in favour of the application and released Maraj on $500,000 on each count. The matter is adjourned until December 4.
A report from the police stated that Maraj arrived in Guyana on October 27, claiming that he came for a job interview and was picked up at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport by two other Trinidadian nationals, who had arrived in the country earlier in the week.

Later the same day, Maraj’s relatives in Trinidad reportedly received a call from an unknown person claiming to have kidnapped Maraj shortly after his arrival, and demanding that a ransom be paid for his release.
The man’s family was also sent a photograph showing him clad only in his boxers and socks with one of his alleged abductors holding a cutlass to his neck.

The Guyana Police Force and agents from the Force’s Major Crimes Unit, after being contacted by the man’s family in Trinidad, immediately sprang into action and reviewed surveillance video at the airport. The viewed recording showed Maraj greeting his supposed abductors, these being the other two Trinidadian nationals, and boarding a taxi without incident.

Aided by the surveillance tapes, the investigators were also able to track down the taxi driver who transported the men from the airport, and to trace the call that was made to demand the ransom that gave them the location of the phone from which it was made.

Armed with such vital information, the agents then hurried to the location where they found Maraj, the supposedly kidnapped victim, in an apartment, “relaxing and sipping on beverages.”

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