Kidnapped businessman Khemdat Sukhul was found clinging to life in Unity Village, Mahaica early yesterday morning with numerous chops about his upper body, but he succumbed less than an hour later.

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In a release yesterday the Police Public Relations Office said that so far five persons had been arrested as a consequence of a call which had been traced. In addition, a hire-car driver had been held in connection with information received.

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According to the police residents had seen an unlighted minibus reversing into Cremation Road, Unity Village from which something had been dumped. Other reports indicated he had been found in a clump of bushes after his cries for help alerted residents in the wee hours of yesterday morning. They called the police, who transported him to the Georgetown Public Hospital where he died.

KIDNAP VICTIM DUMPED: the spot where Sukhul was dumped at Cremation Road, Unity.

The police who described him as "fully conscious," said the attempts to question him produced no useful information.

UNSOLVED crime

At the time Sukhul had been found, the statement said, he was wearing two shirts and a jersey along with dark pants and no shoes. Subsequent investigations, the release continued, revealed that two of the shirts had not been part of his dress at the time of his kidnapping.

Stabroek News was told that the seriously wounded man arrived at the Georgetown Hospital at 4.35 am with chop wounds to the head, neck and back. His right ear was missing, and the police said that he had also sustained a wound to his right ankle. He died around 5.20 am while receiving treatment.

Last Monday the 50-year-old businessman/farmer who lived at Lot 4, Leonora, West Coast Demerara, was snatched from his New Providence office by two gunmen. A female and two other employees were with him at the time.

Reports from the police are that the gunmen entered the office through a door which was unlocked, and held everyone at gunpoint. The gunmen tied the hands and feet of the female and the two males with duct tape. They also gagged the men and then abducted the businessman.

Following the abduction, it was reported that calls had been made to Sukhul's family demanding $25 million as ransom, but the police said yesterday the kidnappers had told the family that the victim had informed them he had $24 million in a safe. However when his mother Ruby Sukhul opened the safe there was no money in it, only documents. The release went on to say that the family did not pay any money.

Since the abduction, the Police Anti-Kidnapping Squad had been working around the clock to free the businessman and his relatives and friends had gathered at the home to keep vigil for his return.

Sources close to the family had told this newspaper that Sukhul lived in England for about ten years, and yesterday his mother said he had re-migrated about 19 years ago to take care of her after his father died. In Guyana he established a sawmill and also did rice farming before turning to logging.

This newspaper was told that he operated a logging concession from which he supplied timber to a local company.

"I feel like I could go with him," were the tearfully-spoken words of Ruby Sukhul, speaking to reporters about her son yesterday, which happened to be her birthday. Just the day before, on Friday, she said, while still in captivity, he had called her to wish her a happy birthday.

Yesterday at the Sukhul's Leonora home relatives, neighbours and friends gathered grieving. Sukhul's mother lay prone on her bed, although she consented to speak to reporters. "He deh kind and loving, always used to talk to me so soft," the woman said. The elderly Sukhul tearfully recounted that her son never answered with just "yes," when she called, but always said "yes Mommy." Relatives said that Sukhul was her "hand and foot" and the woman recounted how he always accompanied her to the doctor and would wait for her and assist her to take her medication.

Meanwhile relatives remembered Sukhul as "generous, loving, caring and very quiet."

They recalled that he was always helpful to children and young persons and two of those whom he had mentored were to be seen at the home yesterday. They both described Sukhul as "more than a brother to us." One of them, a student who had excelled in the Caribbean Secondary Education Certi-ficate (CSEC) examinations last year, stated that he had encouraged her and had ensured that she attended lessons picking her up afterwards. The other, who is writing the CSEC exams this year, stated that Sukhul also encouraged him. "He was a very helpful person to a lot of people," he said. Relatives, who did not want their names to be revealed, stated that they were scared and described the experience as traumatic.

Police sources on the West Demerara had informed Stabroek News that Sukhul had been a victim of petty thefts over the years and although these matters were minor, he had pursued them relentlessly.

(Zoisa Fraser and Gaulbert Sutherland)