Kapurthala youth ‘murdered’ on US ‘donkey route’

Chandigarh, July 9

Leader of Opposition Sukhpal Singh Khaira has asked Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh to take up the case of Sunil Kumar, a resident of Nadala village in Kapurthala, with the Ministry of External Affairs. Kumar was allegedly murdered by human traffickers in a Colombian jungle after he sustained injuries on the “donkey route” to the US.

In a letter to the CM, Khaira said the youth left home on April 24 after local travel agents promised to get him settled in the US. These agents — Jasvir Singh and Harjinder Kaur of Tandi Dakhli village and Suraj of Jalandhar — had charged Rs 20 lakh.

The family was informed on Monday by other illegal immigrants travelling with Kumar that since he could not walk any longer due to his leg injury, he was killed by the human trafficking gang.

“I request you to take up the case with the External Affairs Minister so that Kumar’s body can be traced and brought back. I also demand that stringent action be taken against the unscrupulous travel agents who exploited the victim’s family,” Khaira said in his letter.

Davinder Singh, father of the deceased, said: “He last spoke to us on June 8 and said they were not going directly to the US, as promised by the agent, but would follow the ‘donkey route’ from Colombia, Equador and Panama. We asked him to return, but he refused and went ahead with five others.”

He claimed that his son was murdered around a week ago and his body was buried in a Colombian forest. — TNS