-was recently linked to visa scam
A Kitty resident said to be the mastermind in the Dookie kidnapping was arrested yesterday bringing the total number of persons in custody to four and several more are still being sought by investigators.
Stabroek News has been reliably informed that so far one of the men has been positively identified while another has confessed to the hair- raising crime, for which the culprits had hoped to reap millions of dollars. The police also said yesterday that a SIM card belonging to the victim was found in one of the abodes raided yesterday. The force added that identification parades will be soon held.
Sources have indicated that the Kitty resident was recently implicated in a Canadian visa scam. However the resident was never charged though its victims had implicated him.
This newspaper was told that the man, who, according to reports is a taxi driver, had planned the kidnapping. It was based on information that he was held by police.
Yesterday afternoon Police Commissioner Henry Greene confirmed the man’s arrest when asked by this newspaper.
He said that on Tuesday two men were arrested; one of whom is “positively known to have been involved in both the kidnapping and the capture and detention of this girl in this particular house”.
He said that early that morning, ranks after identifying the house, swooped on it and while one man managed to escape, two men suspected to have played a part in the kidnapping were arrested.
“The one who was guarding the young lady, he claimed that he was only asked to guard her, however he said he would have been paid a few million dollars …”, Greene said yesterday.
The other suspect has been tightlipped since his arrest.
Greene told this newspaper that the police are still looking for some other men who were involved. He said that they have a taxi driver in custody but are still looking for other persons.
On August 26, Rorhema Dookie was forced into a car by gunmen seconds after she exited classes from a school on Thomas Street, North Cummingsburg.
At the time of her abduction she was going to meet her waiting boyfriend, Joel Oudkerk. The kidnappers assaulted him before snatching her.
The young woman had returned to the country just days before the incident.
After being in captivity for a day, a woman who thought that she (Dookie) was her boyfriend’s girlfriend confronted her in the house and after recognizing who she was pulled her outside.
A resident from the area according to reports took her to the East La Penitence police station which was around five minutes walking distance.
Dookie had told the media that she was not familiar with the area, where she was held. A hefty ransom had been demanded but according to her father, businessman Beharry `Natoo’ Dookie, none was paid.
At least three vanloads of policemen swooped on the Stevedore area around 5:30 am on Tuesday and after tumbling up two shacks on a dam, arrested a young man. The properties that were searched according to reports are inhabited by this suspect and at the time of his arrest he was found in the one where the 21-year-old Dookie was reportedly kept.
This suspect, according to reports, became hysterical after the woman was freed and told residents that he was asked by the kidnappers to look after Dookie and that that was what he was doing.
Following his capture, he led police to the Ministry of Housing compound nearby and another man was arrested as he attempted to evade capture. The woman he lives with was also held for questioning.
A senior police officer told Stabroek News yesterday that later that day a man whose house was allegedly searched by the police in connection with the kidnapping was arrested after he went to the Brickdam Police Station to complain. The man was upset that his place was tumbled. The officer could not say whether that man was referring to one of the two houses on the dam.
The building that Dookie is believed to have been held in is referred to as the `rampin’ shop by residents. Some residents told this newspaper that many young ladies frequented that shack and if they had seen Dookie entering they would not have given it a second thought.
Stabroek News was reliably informed that certain details such as posters on the wall, numbers written on the wall and barrels are features of the place, where Dookie said she was held. One of the shacks on the dam had these features.
Police investigations are continuing.
