3 QC cops, 4 Indians face raps for failed kidnap try

MANILA, Philippines - Two counts of murder were filed yesterday against three Quezon City policemen, a reported asset of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), and four Indian nationals for the Dec. 20, 2010 kidnap-slay of the associates of Indian national Manjinder “James” Khumar, who escaped from their abductors.

The Pasay City police filed the complaint before the city prosecutor’s office after the bodies of Khumar’s associates, Ferdinand Ret and Andy Brian Ngie, were found in Bataan and Pangasinan provinces.

Police said the victim’s heads were wrapped in masking tape, and their feet and hands bound. Pasay police chief Senior Superintendent Napoleon Cuaton said that the way the two men were killed “has all the elements of murder.”

The respondents named in the case are Chief Inspector Edwin Faycho, head of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) anti-drug unit; Police Officer 2 Edmund Faculdar; PO1 Mark Edward Zapata; and alleged NBI asset Charles Philip Lou, as well as Indian nationals Gurdanshan Singh, Saudagar Singh, Deepak Kumar (no relation to the victim) and Baldev Singh Brar.

They also face attempted kidnapping and frustrated homicide for the foiled abduction and shooting of Khumar; direct assault and frustrated murder for the shooting of Senior Inspector Renato Apolinario, who came to Khumar’s aid; and car theft for commandeering Ngie’s Mazda Friendee van (BDM-479), which remains missing.

QCPD director Chief Superintendent Benjardi Mantele, meanwhile, relieved all members of the district’s anti-drug unit from their post and placed them under “restrictive custody” at the District Personnel Holding Unit.

Aside from Faycho, Faculdar and Zapata, among those who were relieved were Police Officers 3 Hector Hernandez, Noel Magcalayo and Narciso Itom; and PO1 Jeffrey de la Puerta.

Temple troubles

Khumar told police yesterday he believes his rivals for the presidency of the Khalsadiwan Indian Sect Temple in Manila reportedly paid “a large sum of money to the Quezon City policemen for the hit job.”

He said days before the kidnap try, his rivals reportedly boasted that he would be killed and that they would replace him.

Khumar said his brother Sandip and uncle Bhagwant Rai Bansal were killed in separate incidents.

According to Khumar, his brother was a member of the committee of their temple while his uncle was its former president.

He added that he saw Brar in the company of his attackers on Dec. 20, 2010.

National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) chief Director Nicanor Bartolome said the kidnap try on Khumar has something to do with the quarrel among Indian nationals.

“How our policemen got entangled into this mess is still the subject of our thorough investigation,” said Bartolome during a press briefing yesterday at the NCRPO headquarters at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City.

Bartolome directed Chief Superintendent Jose Arne de los Santos, director of the Southern Police District, to conduct a deeper probe into the incident to identify other police officers involved in the foiled kidnapping.

Bartolome said Apolinario has identified Faycho as among those who shot him when he refused to turn Khumar over to them.

Apolinario trembled when he saw Faycho, in a TV interview, denying his participation in the incident.

Cuaton said the suspects found Apolinario alive and somebody gave an order to shoot him in the head, apparently to finish him off. The suspects fled with the van, taking along Ngie and Ret, after a bystander shouted that a police car was approaching.

De los Santos said the identification of Apolinario would strengthen their case against Faycho, who claimed he was attending the QCPD Christmas party at the time of the incident.

Lou, a cousin of Zapata, was caught on a surveillance camera withdrawing P7,000 from Ngie’s ATM account at the BPI bank branch in Urdaneta City, Pangasinan a day after the foiled kidnap of Khumar.

Bartolome said Lou’s mother is arranging his surrender to police authorities. – With Jerry Botial