A Penal woman who claimed she freed herself from a car trunk on Monday, after she was kidnapped and held captive for three days, allegedly fabricated the entire story.
Reshma Maharaj, 30, appeared before a Justice of the Peace in the San Fernando Magistrates’ Court yesterday afternoon charged with making a false report and was subsequently granted $15,000 own bail to reappear before a magistrate today.
Maharaj, a secretary at a doctor’s office, was found by police officers around 8 am on Monday along the M2 Ring Road, near the T&TEC sub-station in Debe. She reported to PC Trevor Rampersad and Sgt Morrison that she was kidnapped on Friday morning along the M2 Ring Road near La Romaine. She claimed she was driving along the M2 Ring Road when a vehicle pulled in front of her and three men came out, grabbed her and forced her into their vehicle. She further claimed the men kept her captive in a house and on Monday left her in the truck of a car. She told police her mouth was gagged with cloth and her hands were bound with tape during the ordeal, but she escaped after kicking out the back seat of the car.
The police had taken the woman for medical attention at the San Fernando General Hospital before dropping her home on Monday afternoon.
But following inquires by investigators, including Rampersad, Morrison, Insp Don Gajadhar, PC Harripersad of the Cyber Crime Unit, Maharaj was arrested when she returned to the San Fernando Police Station yesterday. The charge alleged that on Monday at M2 Ring Road, La Romaine, she caused the wasteful employment of the police by knowingly making a false report that she was kidnapped by three men.
She later appeared before JP Sandra Soogrim-Ramsaran but was not asked to plead to the charge. Maharaj, who hid her face with a black veil in the court, was represented by attorney Subhas Panday. After being granted own bail, Maharaj was released after she signed the bail bond documents. The offence carries a maximum sentence on summary conviction of a fine of $1,000 and to imprisonment for six months.