Fight
Joshua Seemungal
Senior Multimedia
Journalist joshua.seemungal@guardian.co.tt
As a worried nation agonised for 23-year-old Andrea Bharatt to be returned to her Arima Old Road home safely in February 2021, the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) issued a call for Good Samaritans to join the search. Although well-wishers played a role, some were determined to do more. Hunters from across the country joined between February 2 and February 4 that year, combing east Trinidad’s forests for the young woman who was kidnapped.
The search came to a horrific end with the discovery of Bharatt’s body in the Heights of Aripo.
The tragedy, however, birthed the Hunters Search and Rescue Team (HSRT). Five days after Bharatt’s body was found, 21 hunters accepted another call from the TTPS to assist. This time, with the Aripo Sweep—a comprehensive search to find bodies in an area long suspected of being a dumping ground.
After a long day, the hunters, chatting under a tree, decided to continue their service to and for the country. There, in essence, the organisation was created.
The selfless sacrifice of those present that day and those at later searches returned dozens of people home and also offered grieving families much-needed closure. Between 2,500 and 3,000 families whose loved ones have gone missing have made use of the group during its existence.
But now, there are three men, leaders of their respective groups, claiming ownership of HSRT: Shamsudeen Ayube, Vallence Rambharat, and Anjit Ren Gopiesingh. Once close allies, bitter disputes sent them separate ways.
While each organisation continues to do heroic work, there is a battle for ownership. The matter has already reached the courts. And it seems to be a matter of time before it returns to the courts as another legal action looms. Until that happens, the rivalry is unfolding in the court of public opinion.
Many citizens believe that the HSRT should receive a Hummingbird Medal for gallantry at this year’s Republic Day Awards ceremony at the President’s House due to its consistent effort. However, many members of the public are not even aware of the existence of separate HSRT groups and the ongoing rivalry.
As it stands, there are two Hunters Search and Rescue Team Facebook pages. The team led by Rambharat manages a page created on January 9, 2022. It has 74,000 followers. The team led by Ayube manages a page created on November 21, 2022. It has 55,000 followers. Although the teams use the same name, they have different logos.
Vallance’s Hunters Team
As two vehicles transporting Vallence Rambharat and eight members of his team exited the carpark of the Marabella Police Station onto the Southern Main Road, onlookers applauded and cheered in pure admiration.
“It brings joy to me that families could reunite with their loved ones and they could also get closure. It makes me comfortable to know that I could assist somebody,” founding member Ramlash “Hulk” Ramcharitar said.
“It has meant so much to me. Not only to me but to my family as well. Because it brings so much love, joy, and passion that when you go out there to assist families in finding their loved ones, regardless of the situation, they get some kind of closure,” Kesraj “Tonga” Sooknanan added.
The men in jeans, hiking boots, and bright orange and green shirts were heading to Fabien Street, Vistabella, to search for Kenneth Ali. The 64 year old was reported missing on August 18.
There was no doubt who the leader was. Captain Rambharat, a well-spoken former school teacher, began working the case before arriving in Marabella. He already knew the missing man was not at a hospital or in prison.
When the team arrived in Vistabella, Rambharat spoke with Ali’s relatives about the missing man’s behavioural patterns. Rambharat said the information and a sense of the surrounding area allowed him to mentally formulate a strategy. Although he spoke softly, the group’s members listened closely. Rambharat has a calm, assertive presence.
With the relatives, he spoke more assertively. There was a hint of all-knowingness, at times, albeit not arrogant.
Before heading out, the captain called for group prayer. The members’ broad, calloused hands held each other’s.
The first stop was the peewah stand along the Tarouba Link Road. Ali used to work there. His friend, Archie, told the team that Ali used a nearby trail. Thick, heavy tears filled up the chasmed, dark wrinkles above Archie’s sharp, swollen cheekbones.
“Very decent. Very honest. I could leave Kenneth with anything and come back, and Kenneth will give me what is mine. I going all over, everywhere, looking for him, boy,” he said, still crying.
In an efficiently impressive manner, the group searched nearby rivers and bushes. But with no sign of Ali, the search perimeter was expanded. On foot, one group walked the drains from the family home to the main river, while the other group made its way around in the other direction.
A drone monitored from above. While taking their tasks seriously, the men, like brothers, poked fun at one another. Recalling some of their past searches, they told stories of miraculous recoveries.
Two of them, separately, spoke of Jennessa Alleyne, the five year old with autism who was found sitting on the bank of the Carapo River 12 hours after her disappearance.
The picture of Rambharat holding a drenched Jennessa alive was one of the group’s most powerful images. The members, many retirees, traversed the community’s terrain fearlessly—slippery, mossy drains, narrow, muddy paths, and damp, waist-high grass. And after more than three hours of searching, the group called it a day.
They promised Ali’s relatives they would continue the next day. The relatives thanked Rambharat and the team, offering tuna sandwiches, cold drinks, and aloo pies as tokens of appreciation.
“We thought it would have been once a month, but that quickly dissipated after COVID-19, and now we find ourselves out on searches approximately four or five times per month.
“In all, we have 32 strong; Two in Tobago, 30 in Trinidad … We have units within the team … I think, at the end of the day, it is those who have that altruistic view; that volunteerism is a noble thing and that when you give back, you get blessings in return,” Rambharat said.
As he spoke, the other members of the team stood closely together behind him. Ali is still missing.
The conflicts
Rambharat addressed the conflicts with Ayube and Gopiesingh, saying he expelled them from the group.
“Now, our constitution is very clear. It says any member who attracts criminal charges by the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) would be asked to step out of the team and clear their name. Such an incident happened in November 2022 when a member had two criminal charges preferred against him, and the decision was taken by this team to have him expelled.
“That gentleman, when he came on the team, things were OK for a month or two, and then a toxic culture started to seep into the team. We looked at it closely. We gave him opportunities to correct himself, and he didn’t. So once the charges were preferred, the opportunity was used for him to be expelled.
“Sadly, a couple of weeks after that incident, he went on Facebook and created a similar page, and out there he’s been trying to mimic and copy the team, but we don’t pay attention to him. We are noble in our cause,” he said.
Two of the three men claiming ownership of HSRT, Ayube and Gopiesingh, were charged with criminal offences. Ayube confirmed that he was charged with using obscene language, while Gopiesingh admitted that he was charged with offences against a minor.
“From November 2022 or January 2023, when that member was expelled, up to now, he has never assisted a single family in recovering their loved one’s body. From February 2023 to now, we have assisted 30 families in achieving closure when we recovered their bodies. So it’s really a comparison between chalk and cheese,” Rambharat said proudly and assertively.
Ramcharitar, the head of the HSRT’s central unit, supported his captain.
“In the team, we don’t tolerate foolishness at all. We are serious about protecting the team. We have women on the team, and we are serious about protecting women on the team.
“To know that almost all of the members that start from the beginning are here and for that individual to go out and say he created the name and this and that, we know that is a lie … We don’t say it, but we have records. We have a lot of things we could put out there, but we just don’t, because we are about helping people,” Ramcharitar said.
Shamsudeen’s fight
A burly man with two ponytails and a thick Guyanese accent, Shamsudeen Ayube, a contractor, is one of the most recognisable members of any of the Hunters Search and Rescue groups.
According to him, he is the rightful owner of the sole group. He showed the registration documents of Sham Hunters Search and Rescue as evidence. Additionally, Ayube claimed that he, and not Gopiesingh, registered ‘Hard Grounds Hunters Search and Rescue’—the first HSRT-related registered entity—as a non-profit organisation on April 16, 2021.
Guardian Media confirmed that Ayube was listed as a director for Hard Grounds Hunters Search and Rescue.
From the onset of the searches, Ayube established a reputation as a brave, relentless searcher with good sources and instincts. He is passionate about HSRT to the point of obsession.
“What inspires me? Well, we have a small child. My wife took care of that child from two and a half months old. She is seven years old now. At night, when I am lying down on the bed and I see this child lying down on the bed, I realise if there is something wrong, who will I turn to? Who will I go to? And that’s what motivates me, and that’s why I went out and searched for Andrea Bharatt,” Ayube said.
When Guardian Media arrived in Arima to interview Ayube, his wife recalled occasions when they spent days sleeping in their car during a search. On one occasion, she said, they slept in their car for seven days.
Before the interview began, Ayube’s hair was separated into the trademark two ponytails by his wife. His speech was, at times, difficult to understand, but he was passionate about his work.
“Within the group we had, there was no leader, and we moved on, and we tried to put things together to figure out how to organise because we had so many people around. At the time, there was a lot of bacchanal; everybody was fighting because that one was fighting this one. That one fighting this one.
“It is not any confusion to the public (about who owns HSRT). It is very simple. On one occasion, the whole group mashed up. I said I would continue to help to look for missing persons because on those occasions it was me, my wife, and my partner, Bisoondath Seeram, and we continued running the East-West corridor, looking for people. And we said we would continue to look for missing persons,” he said, adding that he was the person who brought the group back together. According to Ayube, the group then split permanently because he became increasingly concerned about social media posts.
Ayube said HSRT began claiming rescues the group did not make. He listed the Jennessa Alleyne rescue as an example. Guardian Media was shown a picture with Jennessa’s uncle and cousin, two fishermen, carrying a drenched Jennessa over their shoulders out of the river. We were also shown a video, filmed by one of the two men, showing them spotting Jennessa in the river for the first time.
“Don’t tell me it’s me alone seeing that alyuh, cause we eh going mad. I hear with my uncle,” one of the men said in the video, referring to spotting Jennessa in the water.
In another video showing the two fishermen carrying the little girl from the river, there was a member of the HSRT team behind. The individual, in the video, said another member was nearby. Rambharat was quoted in a major newspaper saying that he spotted the little girl sitting on the river bank.
“We saw her drenched. She was close to the sea. I couldn’t believe it. I grabbed her and passed by the police station and then to her mother,” Rambharat was quoted as saying.
When Guardian Media put the question and footage to Rambharat last week, he labelled Ayube’s statements as lies. He said Ayube’s expulsion from his WhatsApp group was a result of repeated misconduct and a criminal charge for obscene language.
Rambharat also denied suggestions that he or any other member of the group ever claimed rescues or recoveries that they were not responsible for. He said his group has rescued and recovered more people than any other entity claiming to be the Hunters Search and Rescue group.
Ayube also claimed that Rambharat has also been ‘misleading the nation’ by claiming ownership of HSRT.
“We never take credit for nobody’s work. In Mermaid Pool, we rescued the people with the 14 hikers who were stranded, and one was bitten by the matapee. We rescued these people and brought them out, and he never was there. He came after they were rescued and told the entire nation that he found them.
“There was a case in Biche that a fella drowned. Me and my partner Mamoo went up early, and we were about to do a search. We were instructed not to go and do no search until the team assembled. The team never came together. We guide the family and the villagers on how to search. They search and find the individuals based on how we teach them our knowledge. Next thing we see it on social media. We see them publishing that they find, but they never find anybody. I said take it down because you cannot lie to the nation. You never find nobody,” he said.
According to Ayube, he plans to take legal action against Rambharat’s claim of ownership of HSRT.
“Yeah, it have consequences down the road. As I said, we are waiting for the right time. We are never worried. We are never late. But the right time will come, and we are preparing to do certain things legally, not illegally. It’s in process, and as I said, we are talking to a lot of lawyers,” Ayube stated.
‘Doing something good for the nation’
Bissondath Seeram, one of the 60 members of Ayube’s group, described the contractor as honest and dedicated. He supported his friend’s sentiment.
“They like to promote themselves by taking credit that is not due to them, unlike Sham. If someone discovers something, he would highlight the person and respond that he would have made arrangements. They always mentioned that Sham would have been a person who would have been on all the searches, and they gave him credit for that when I was with that group. He never faltered or dropped out, and up to today, he continues with that same attitude.
“When I brought that little boy Umar out of the forest in Grande, I had this feeling that that was my grandchild because I have a granddaughter that is about his age. So that feeling gives you a little pride in yourself, knowing that you are doing something good for the nation,” he said.
Gopiesingh’s legal action
The first legal matter concerning the use of HSRT arose in April 2022. Gopiesingh, leader of the Hard Grounds Hunters Search and Rescue Team, issued a pre-action protocol letter to the group headed by Rambharat.
Gopiesingh’s attorney, Gerald Ramdeen, gave Rambharat 28 days to stop using the name and engaging in activities related to its purpose.
According to the legal letter, Rambharat was expelled for undermining behaviour. Rambharat, undaunted, continued to use HSRT. According to Gopiesingh, who spoke with Guardian Media, his legal challenge against Rambharat is on hold.
Gopiesingh is focused on dealing with a criminal charge. “I actually ease it up because I try to clear my name with this allegation, and then I will continue with the legal documents,” he said.
Asked about the beginnings of HSRT, Gopiesingh said he registered Ayube, and not Rambharat, as a director in the original organisation on April 16, 2021. Gopiesingh claimed that two boats given to him last year under Hunters Search and Rescue were collected by another group “under false pretences.”
He added, “I pulled the Republic Bank accounts. I pulled Scotiabank accounts, but the only bank I didn’t get to pull is First Citizens.”
Gopiesingh said his HSRT group, with 15 members, is operational but working quietly. He said it has a contract with the TTPS to assist with information gathering in missing persons cases.
Who is the rightful owner?
Given that the accounts of the three men differ, it is impossible to prove who verbally conceptualised the organisation.
However, according to the Companies Registry of the Registrar General’s Department, the first related organisation registered by any of the three disputing founders is “Hard Grounds Hunters Search and Rescue.” It was registered by Gopiesingh as a non-profit organisation on April 16, 2021.
A second related organisation, “Hunters Emergency Response Team,” was registered by Rambharat as a non-profit organisation on October 25, 2022.
A third related organisation, “Sham Hunters Search and Rescue Team,” was formed by Shamsudeen Ayube on September 29, 2023.
No organisation is registered specifically as Hunters Search and Rescue, but an unnamed party sought unsuccessfully to reserve the company name in the Companies Registry in early 2023.