…abductors had demanded $700,000 ransom

THE trial against 33-year-old Trinidadian Sawak Maraj who is charged with faking his own kidnapping in Guyana, last October, is adjourned until June 28, 2018.
Maraj is on trial before Senior Magistrate Fabayo Azore, for allegedly giving the police wrong information and for conspiracy to commit a felony.

Particulars of the case indicated that on October 27, 2017 in Georgetown, Maraj knowingly gave false information to the police stating that he was kidnapped, and that his abductors had demanded US$700,000 for his release.

It is further alleged that on the same day while at the Madewini Resort on the Soesdyke-Linden Highway, Maraj conspired with two other persons to obtain the ransom money.
Testifying on Monday was Ram-Krishna Ram, a taxi driver and police witness Inspector Stephens.

Maraj is out on $1M bail and is being represented by attorney, Bernard De Santos, SC.
According to the police, Maraj arrived in Guyana on October 27, 2017 on the pretext that he had come for a job interview. He was picked up at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport by two other Trinidadians, who it is said had arrived in the country earlier in the week.

Later that same day, Maraj’s relatives in Trinidad reportedly received a call from an unknown person who claimed to have kidnapped Maraj shortly after his arrival here, and had demanded that a ransom be paid for his release.

The man’s family was also sent a photograph showing him clad only in his underwear and socks, and one of his alleged abductors holding a cutlass to his neck.
Local police and agents from the Police Major Crimes Unit, after being contacted by the man’s family in Trinidad, immediately sprang into action.

They firstly reviewed footage from the surveillance camera at the airport which showed Maraj being warmly embraced on arrival by his two so-called abductors, who were his fellow ‘Trinis’. The man then boarded a taxi without incident.

Aided by the surveillance tapes, the investigators were able to track down the taxi driver who transported the men from the airport, and trace the call that was made to demand the ransom. It was that call that indicated the location from where it originated.

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