A CLOSE relative of Sangre Grande murder victim Bhagmat Seemungal-Akaloo reportedly paid four men $20,000 to kidnap her, stab her to death and then make the entire thing appear to be a random act of violence.

Tuesday morning’s incident was not random, however. It was planned but not very well executed, as one of the reportedly paid-off ’kidnappers’ was arrested yesterday morning at his home in Sangre Grande.

Reports are that he, along with the murder victim’s close relative, was ’assisting’ investigators in their enquiries.

Spearheading these enquiries are Insp Stanley Ramdeen, Johnnie Abraham (both from the Homicide Bureau) and Sgt Beverly Paul, who is from the Sangre Grande CID.

Seemungal-Akaloo was a 44-year-old school teacher who lived with her husband and three-year-old daughter at their home along the Guaico-Tamana Road. She taught at the Manzanilla Secondary School.

Sangre Grande police were initially told that around 5 a.m. on Tuesday, four men in a van stopped in front of Seemungal-Akaloo’s house. Seemungal-Akaloo stepped out of her house, still clad in her sleep-wear, as the van looked like her brother’s. It was not.

Four men came out the van instead. They stormed the house, tied up the woman’s husband and the couple’s daughter, and stole an undisclosed sum of cash and jewelry.

They did not stop there, however. They grabbed Seemungal-Akaloo, bundled her into their van and sped off.

Hours later, her body was found at the side of a dirt road off San Louis Road in the Sangre Grande area. It was wrapped in a green sheet and there were stab wounds about the body, including a large gash to the neck. A bloody kitchen knife and a pair of gloves were found near the body.

The search for the other three ’kidnappers’ continued last night.