Eyeing greener pastures, two youths land in Indonesian jail

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, May 20

Looking for greener pastures, two youths of the border district have landed in jail in Indonesia. The incident came to light when the news of their arrest was circulated on social media. The family members of the victims were left devastated as they had mortgaged their properties to realise the dreams of their sons.

‘Trying to contact Indonesian embassy’

Punjab NRI Affairs Minister Kuldeep Dhaliwal today visited the residence of Gurmail Singh and assured the family of all possible help. He said Principal Secretary J Murugan is trying to contact the Indonesia Embasssy for providing legal help to the victims. He said legal action would be taken against the travel agent who had duped the family and the victims.

Disturbed over the incident, they have now sought the intervention of Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann and the Central Government for their safe return.

Gurmail Singh (21), a resident of Gaggomahal village in Ajnala, and his cousin Ajaypal Singh (20) of Maude village in Attari subdivision started their journey for the US from the New Delhi airport on May 9. They would not have the slightest inkling that they would be duped by the travel agent, identified as Charanjit Singh Sodhi of Delhi.

They reached Indonesia as ‘guided’ by Sodhi whose accomplices received the duo at an Indonesian airport from where they were taken into a room, said Gurmail’s father Sahib Singh. He said they came to know that they were tortured and forced to make calls to their family claiming they had reached safely and would start their onward journey for the US soon.

Sahib Singh, who runs a flour mill in the village, said he had mortgaged his house and property for arranging money for sending his son abroad. He said he had never anticipated that his son would land in deep trouble. He said Sodhi demanded Rs 35 lakh for each child. He asked them to keep 5,000 US dollar with them during the journey. The amount was forcibly snatched by Sodhi’s accomplices in Indonesia who also thrashed them.

The entire incident unfolded when they somehow managed to slip away from their clutches and reached Indonesia airport. They called their family and narrated the entire tale of woes. He said they got their return tickets arranged. But before taking the flight they were arrested by the Indonesia police.

Simranjit Singh, a relative of the victim, said they had contacted the Indonesian Embassy through a lawyer and they came to know that the duo was still not implicated in the case.

They urged the state government and the Centre for arranging safe return of their children, besides taking action against fake travel agent Charanjit Singh Sodhi.

Sanjiv Kumar, DSP, Ajnala, said the police did not get any complaint from the family. He said appropriate action would be taken if they received any complaint in this regard.

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