Youth stuck in Dubai over mistaken identity

Thiruvananthapuram: In a mistaken case of identity, Mohamed Riyas, 27, from Thrissur, who was  working in Abu Dhabi as information system consultant, was put behind bars by the emigration department in Dubai last year.

An unidentified person named Mohammed Mohemmadali, who had committed financial crimes in Dubai,  had finger prints similar to that of Riyas. He  was  freed recently, but the Dubai police has not yet released his passport.

UAE ambassador Mohamed Sultan Abdalla Al Owais, who was here on Saturday,  promised his father Mohammed Ali Yavutty  Chiramanengad that he will do the needful.

Riyas, who came to Kerala for a 12-day holiday from Abu Dhabi for Eid holidays, was detained by the emigration department in Dubai on October 20 last year.

He had previously worked in Infosys at its various software developing centres at Bengaluru, New Delhi, Pune and Mysore for four years and later he  set out to have a better job in Abu Dhabi.

According to his father Yavutty, a social worker in Kunnamkulam, if the union government does not take steps to release Riyas’s passport, he will stage an indefinite sit-in in front of UAE embassy in New Delhi.

“Though the Dubai court acquitted him from the case, they are yet to release his passport even after over  a month. I have been sending Rs 50, 000 from here to meet his monthly expenses,” Yavutty told DC.

Riyaz claimed that he was in the tenth grade when the other person, Mohemmadali, committed the financial crimes.