Indian government should help innocent Indians in Gulf jails, says Activist

Hyderabad: Basanth Reddy, an activist who fights for the rights of Indians in jails in Gulf countries, says there are many innocent Indians who have landed up in jails in Gulf countries and the Indian government must take cognizance of the matter and try to get them released.

One such prisoner recently released is M. Chiranjeevi from Nizamabad. He was arrested by the Sharjah airport police for allegedly smuggling drugs into Sharjah in 2016. He was released the same year after he was found innocent and also had helped police nab six people actually involved in smuggling.

“A day before my departure for Sharjah, I got a call from an unknown person who introduced himself as Yella Reddy. He asked if I could do him a favour and deliver some important documents to a person named Raju who was living in Sharjah,” Mr Chiranjeevi recalls.

“I agreed and gave him my address in Nizamabad and he came to my home and gave me a parcel which was covered with two white papers and taped. The name of the person I should hand over the parcel to and his phone number were written on the paper.”

When he landed at Sharjah airport, the scanner detected something suspicious in the parcel and he was asked to open it.

“There were around 600 tablets in the parcel which I learned from the cops were narcotic drugs. I clearly told them how the parcel came to me, but they did not believe me and took me to the airport police station and sent me to court. I explained everything to the judge. I pleaded with him to release me. He asked me to call the number written on the parcel and when I didn’t get any response, the court sentenced me to jail for seven years and fined me 5,000 dinars,” Mr Chiranjeevi continued.

He was lodged in a Sharjah central prison. “Both my legs and hands were cuffed and they tonsured me. I stayed in a barrack where there were around 50 people, about 20 of them from India. They had been sent to jail on the same drug smuggling charge. I also learnt that there are thousands of Indians in Sharjah central prison. I stayed in the prison for three days.”

During Ramzan, amnesty is given to chosen prisoners. Police personnel were inspecting the jail for this purpose and they spoke to Mr Chiranjeevi who told them how he had landed up in jail. He was taken to the court and his statement was recorded.

“They asked me to call Yella Reddy, who had given me the parcel. I called him from my Dubai SIM number. The cops asked for my help in nabbing the persons involved in smuggling and on their directions I inquired with Yella Reddy about the delivery of the parcel and he gave my contact to someone residing in Sharjah. That person called up and told me to meet him at a place 70 km from Sharjah prison. Guarded by the cops I went to the spot and they nabbed the person along with four others. The cops seized around 20,000 tablets from them.”

Mr Chiranjeevi was released from jail and reported for the job in a private company that he had come for. But when he wanted to renew his passport, the company informed him that his passport was not with them but with the jail officials. He asked the jail authorities to return the passport but they refused as the case was still under investigation, they said. Finally, in March 2017, Mr Chiranjeevi was asked to leave the country and banned from visiting it again.

Basanth Reddy, the Gulf rights activist says the government must take up the matter of innocent Indians in jails in Gulf countries.