Engineer From Kolkata, Sold As Slave In Saudi Arabia, Family Wants Him Back

An automobile engineer, Jayanta Biswas, who went to Saudi Arabia for better job opportunities, has allegedly been sold to a Saudi national as a slave to work in his camel farm.

The members of his family have approached the Ministry of External Affairs to help in bringing him back. However, they haven’t even received an answer from the ministry.

Elder sister of Jayanta, Gouri Biswas said, “We appeal to the Indian government to initiate action in order to bring my brother back. We are at our wit’s end.”

She also said that Jayanta got in touch with Mumbai and New Delhi agents, who took one lakh rupees from him for helping him get a plum job in the Saudi Arabian automobile sector.

According to Gauri, on a tourist visa, the agents put him on a plane to Riyadh. They had promised him that he would get a work visa after living there for three months and find a good job at an automobile service center. But after he reached there in Riyadh, he was sold to a Saudi national as a worker in his camel farm.

jayanta-biswas — Jayanta Biswas, Source-Twitter

She further claimed that the person, who bought him, had forced him to work as a laborer and gave food only once a day. He also tried to abuse him sexually. Once Jayanta tried to escape from his master’s house but failed in his attempt and was acutely beaten up.

However, later he managed to flee and sought help from the Riyadh’s Indian Embassy. They recorded his statement and sent him to a Saudi Capital’s NGO.

She added, incensed over Jayanta’s flee, his master complaint to the the police accusing him of stealing 10,000 Riyals. Thereafter he was put in the jail.

Gauri said, “From the prison, he managed to get in touch with us and this is how we got to know about his ordeal. When we got in touch with the agents, they demanded Rs 35,000 for my brother’s release. We paid the amount and he was released from prison on October 27.”

Now, though, he is out of jail, the family doesn’t know anything about his return. Rabindranath Biswas, his father, wrote to the Ministry of External Affairs looking for their help in ensuring his return.

Gauri said, “We have written to MEA and Union Minister Sushma Swaraj. But our pleas are yet to be heard. We want the MEA to take swift action.”