CORENTYNE cattle farmer Darvendra Hoopnarine, called “Bob”, is alleging that he was kidnapped by a known traffic rank and another man on Tuesday night, and that their motive was to kill him.The 36-year-old farmer, who is also a diesel mechanic, said he was taking his cattle to settle in for the night when he was stopped by a traffic officer, whom he recognised and named. He said the officer was in the company of another male in a white Toyota 212 motorcar when he accosted him on the Middle Walk Dam in Number 58 Village, Corentyne, Berbice.

Hoopnarine recalled that the incident occurred at about 21:00hrs. Both men, he said, wanted to know what he was doing with cows that hour of the night. “What you doing here?” they asked. “You t’iefing cow?” they asked.
Hoopnarine said that for a moment he hesitated to answer, and this seemed to irritate the traffic rank, who again asked, “Why you not answering? You know is who talking to you?” Pointing to the man beside him, he said: “This is Sergeant Brown.”

Hoopnarine said that by then he had got over his initial fear, and he swiftly replied: “Is me cows, sir; I taking them to the pen.”

Hoopnarine said he knew fully well that the man the traffic rank introduced him to was not who he said he was. “I know the next one was not a police, ‘cause I know Sergeant Brown; he a is big-built person and this was a small person,” he said, adding: “But at no time did he say anything bad, or try to hurt me; it was the traffic officer that I know who said things.”

Seemingly satisfied with his explanation, or so Hoopnarine thought, the men drove off, and he continued on his way.

STRANGER AND STRANGER
But as he came out of the street, he again encountered the pair outside of a popular supermarket, and the traffic rank again accosted him.

“I was stopped by the traffic officer, and asked where I going; if I tracking them,” Hoopnarine said. And with that, he said, the traffic rank came out of the car and ordered him to get in.

“He come out de car and tell me, ‘Get in, yuh goin’ to de station’,” Hoopnarine said. “So I put meh bicycle in de truck, and they drive off. But this time the police drive, and the other guy sat next to me in the back seat.”

Hoopnarine said that all the while the vehicle was headed in the direction of the Number 52 Police Station, but as they neared the Number 56 Water Treatment Plant Road, it suddenly turned off the road and onto the dam. At this point, he said, he really became scared. “I ask them, ‘Where we going? I thought you taking me to the station!’”

And that is when he knew he was in real trouble. “The police then tell me, ‘Meh gon stuff yuh mouth and kill you now,’” Hoopnarine said.

Hoopnarine said he had to think fast. He knew they’d only travelled about 200 metres into the dam when the traffic rank said what he did; and as the car began to slow down, he seized the opportunity and made a run for it.

“I run fuh meh life! I was scared!” Hoopnarine said. “Imagine somebody tell you that! All you can do is think what you gon do to save your life, so I just run as fast as I could…. I feel if I didn’t escape, I could be a dead man, and nobody wouldn’t know anything, ‘cause…. Why would they take me at the back deh?”

A FRIEND IN NEED
Running as fast as his legs could take him, Hoopnarine said, he never stopped until he came to the Number 55 Village, where he stopped at a businessman friend of his, named Ahmad Rajab, and told him what had transpired. After hearing him out, Rajab took him to the Number 51 Police Station, where a report was made.

And during the course of their investigation the following day, Hoopnarine said, the police found his bicycle at the home of the traffic rank. They summoned him to the station to identify the bicycle, and, complying, he came face-to-face with his would-be killer, the traffic rank.

Now repentant, Hoopnarine said, the policeman apologised and said he was sorry; but he wasn’t about to let him off the hook so easily, Hoopnarine said. “I tell he, ‘When you de telling me you gon kill me, you didn’t feel sorry.’”

Investigators took him back to the scene on Thursday morning to identify the area where he was taken, Hoopnarine said. The Guyana Chronicle has learnt that the traffic rank is stationed at the Albion Police Station and lives at Number 58 Village. Hoopnaraine said the rank has been known to him for over 10 years, and that as far as he knew, they’d never had any quarrel that could have prompted him to do what he did.

He is calling on the relevant authorities to look into the matter, as he now fears for his life.