Businessman Ragkumar Persad was forced to make a choice Monday night - sacrifice a son to protect his three other children.
By Richard CharanVijay was closing the doors to the grocery while his father and three other children were stocking a refrigerator.
Persad said the men ran in and told him to open the door leading to the cash register.
Persad said he refused, even after the men held Vijay and shouted "Open it now. 'We taking your son.'
"I had my other children with me. I was fearing for them," Persad said yesterday.
Vijay was dragged away from the family's home at Moruga Road, Indian Walk, Princes Town around 8 p.m Monday after Persad refused to open a burglar-proofed door leading to his children and the money.
The boy was last seen being taken through a track into a forest.
Up to late yesterday, the Robert Village Hindu Primary School pupil was still missing.
No ransom demand had been made.
Persad, 38, brother of Anand Persad, the owner of D Food King supermarket chain, last night begged for his son's release.
He said: "[Vijay] is asthmatic He needs his medication at least once a week, depending on how he is feeling, and I don't know how he is feeling."
A golden opportunity to bring Vijay home, was thwarted by a selfish resident, police said.
They said the resident was asked by a woman to use her phone after she spotted a weeping Vijay standing with three men at St Mary's Village, Moruga, hours after his abduction. The resident refused, and Vijay and the men disappeared.
A man standing near the grocery who witnessed the abduction said the men who took Vijay were unmasked "but you couldn't see their face, because they were only bouncing and moving like crab."
The area was in darkness, because the street light stopped functioning four years ago, a resident said.
Persad said: "My son is only ten. I don't know how he will cope. It happen so fast, I could not even say anything. I hear him screaming, shouting 'Daddy, Daddy'."
The Express was told that within 13 minutes, the Anti-Kidnapping Squad was at the house, and 45 minutes later, police tracker dogs were following a trail that ran cold near a river.
Yesterday, more than 50 policemen were searching villages along the Moruga Road.
Persad said the family lived quietly since being robbed 12 years ago and that he did not have contact with his relatives.
Superintendent Joseph Nathaniel, and ASP Rattan Singh are involved in investigations.
