Today marks three months since taxi driver Vivikanand Nandalall was kidnapped. His mother Priya Nandalall is questioning whether her son's kidnapping will remain an unsolved mystery.

Nandalall, 20, of Non Pariel, East Coast Demerara, was snatched on October 16, 2003, after he was asked to pick up someone at Bachelor's Adventure. His car, PGG 3846, was later found abandoned on the railway embankment at Annandale.

In a statement sent to this newspaper yesterday, his mother, who along with his father had retuned to Guyana for a while following their son's abduction, questioned why her son was kidnapped and why, even after relatives paid a $1 million ransom he was not released.

The woman said her son, who attended the Bladen Hall and Cove and John Secondary schools, had a certificate in refrigeration and air-conditioning from the Government Technical Institute. He was expected to start a three-year course at the same institution this year. The woman said her son asked them to purchase a car, which he would use to get to school and work as a taxi part-time.

The woman questioned whether her son might have known his kidnappers and if the entire episode was a set-up. She also wanted to know why the army helicopter was not used during the searches for her son.

"Why, when anybody is murdered the President [Bharrat Jagdeo] go and offer help, what wrong with my son? Didn't he have a life?" the woman questioned. "I want to know if any of the ministers' children get kidnapped if it would run in the papers a couple of days and be forgotten."

The woman also asked how the police were able to have the US diplomat Steve Lesniak and businessman Vic Singh safely returned from their abductors, noting that ransom had been paid for them.

"Nobody in the whole world knows how hard this is. This is harder than death itself. Only who face this know this. We as parents going through the most (punishing) time one can explain", the statement said.

The family said a reward is still being offered for any information on the whereabouts of the young man.

The $1 million ransom was paid on October 17, 2003 when, as instructed, a relative dropped off the money on a road leading into Enterprise.

Following the kidnapping, the Anti-Kidnapping Unit and reinforcements from Police Headquarters and other Anti-Crime Units from Georgetown, were dispatched and they searched the back dams of Buxton and surrounding areas for the young man.

The police had also issued wanted bulletins for several men in connection with the kidnapping including the lone surviving prison escapee, Troy Dick and several other wanted men.