Dollar dream lands Bhiwani youth in Kenyan jail

Sat Singh

Tribune News Service

Bhiwani, May 21

The dream to earn dollars has landed 21-year-old Vikas Bhardwaj of Dharuheda village in a Kenya jail after the ship he boarded was caught carrying banned drugs at the Mombasa port nine months ago.

Vikas, the lone child of his widowed mother Lalita, was a meritorious student. He was pursuing BTech at BITS, Bhiwani, when he was lured to join a shipping company in 2013. “He scored 80 per cent marks in the non-medical stream in Class XII. He had even started his engineering course when he was offered the job of a seaman by a Dubai-based company,” said Praveen Kumar, victim’s uncle.

His mother, who is an anganwadi worker, managed to collect Rs 4 lakh to pay to a Delhi-based agent. He had links with one Peter in Dubai, said Kumar.

Things were running smooth till July, 2014. The company that had hired Vikas used to pay him during training. The trouble started after it was sold out to a Pakistan-based shipping company. “My son was on training period and no one told him about the change of ship ownership,” said his mother.

The Pakistan-based company had concealed a consignment of banned drugs in the ship and during checking at the Mombasa port, all 10 members on board were arrested,” said Vikas’ mother.

The family has met Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj several times to get Vikas out of jail. “The family gets assurance, but they say till the matter was pending in the Kenyan court, they cannot do much,” said a family member.