7-MILE ORDEAL

UWI manager Maria Dass-Supersad walked seven miles up a mountain in heels with her kidnappers before police rescued her on Wednesday, her mother yesterday told Newsday. Radica Bisarmajeet, the mother of two, from Chaguanas, said the kidnappers did not harm Dass-Supersad.

Up to yesterday afternoon, Bisarmajeet said she had not questioned her daughter about the ordeal, but intended to visit Dass-Supersad at her home in Port of Spain later in the day. “Last night there were many people at the hospital and she was unable to talk much about the incident. But they did not harm her. “She does not know why someone would want to kidnap her and we don’t know why someone would want to kidnap her as well,” Bisarmajeet said.

Dass-Supersad, an administrative manager at the University of the West Indies (UWI) in St Augustine, was leaving work shortly after 3 pm on Wednesday when two men snatched her at gunpoint in the carpark near the north gate of the campus.

One was wearing a vest with the word “POLICE” and the other was dressed in army gear. They shoved her into a white Nissan Tiida bearing a fake registration number and drove off.

Around 8.30 pm, police rescued her in Caura. Dass-Supersad was taken to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Mt Hope and later discharged. Police detained two men who were still in custody yesterday.

“UWI needs to beef up its security plain and simple. It should not be that people can enter the compound, kidnap a person and just drive off,” Bisarmajeet said.

The kidnappers reportedly made a ransom demand, but Bisarmajeet said, “The point is, she does not have money.”

She described her daughter as “a very loving, helpful and caring person who has good karma. She is a very brave person and knows how to negotiate.”

Recalling the moment when she heard Dass-Supersad had been kidnapped, Bisarmajeet said she immediately thought of Ria Sookdeo.

Sookdeo, of Raghoo Village in Debe, was abducted two years ago outside her children’s primary school after she dropped them off. She has never been found. Bisarmajeet said that like Sookdeo, Dass-Supersad is just as pretty, hence the thought.

Bisarmajeet rushed to UWI when she got the news. “I did not believe it. I had to be there to see for myself. Many people and police were there. For me at that moment, time stood still.

“I saw people around me going and coming, doing their business. I felt like no one was feeling the pain I was feeling at that moment.” Bisarmajeet said she returned home at 7 pm to find many people had gathered to support her. On checking social media, Bisarmajeet found other people, including many strangers, were offering prayers for her daughter’s safe return.

“I thank all of them. There were so many people who prayed for my daughter. I also want to thank Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith and his team for finding my daughter. Gary and his team were great,” she said.