Investigating officers say they have several leads in the abduction of school teacher Keston Mahabir and are hopeful of a breakthrough soon.
Since Mahabir’s abduction, police have detained several people for questioning, including the mother of a 17-year-old girl and a female Venezuelan national. However, no one has been charged. Up to yesterday, they had not been able to determine a motive for the abduction and suspect it may just be “an eerie case of mistaken identity.”
A close friend of Mahabir, who described the missing school teacher as fun, loving and caring, said close friends are holding prayers and hoping for his safe return.
“We want to hear something positive in this. We are hoping that somebody would get a call and tell us where to find Kessy (as he is fondly called). This seems like a never ending nightmare and we really hope that the police gets whoever is behind Kessy’s abduction,” the friend said.
Mahabir, head of Keston’s Educational Institute of Pitiman Trace, Mc Bean Village, Couva was abducted from his home last Wednesday. CCTV footage shown exclusively on CNC3’s Crime Watch programme last Thursday, shows that at about 11.50 am, two women parked a silver vehicle near Mahabir’s house. Mahabir, who was wearing a red t-shirt, met the women and escorted them inside the house, where he conducts his classes. Two minutes later, two men are seen coming around the front of the house and entering the door.
A few minutes later, one of the men is seen coming back outside, this time, holding Mahabir around the neck and walking him back out to the front of the house. A few seconds later, the second man came out of the house and walked to the front behind the first man and Mahabir. The men were wearing bandanas covering their faces.
Mahabir, a graduate of the University of T&T, has spent the last five years teaching Mathematics, English and Human and Social Biology at his private school. He is expected to take up a teaching position at the University of the West Indies in St Augustine from September.