The Canadian Parvasi - Issue 103

The International News Weekly INDIA
July 19, 2019 | Toronto 10
Gurdaspur man fears mother
sold as slave in Kuwait
Amritsar: Punjab Police
have arrested a travel agent
who has been accused by
children of a woman, identified
as Veena Bedi, he had
sent to Kuwait last year, of
connivance in “selling” her
in slavery to a Pakistani
family living there.
Her children believe
the Pakistani national
in Kuwait in connivance
with fraudulent agents had
“bought” the woman for
1,200 Kuwaiti Dinars (approximately
Rs 2.7 lakh).
Gurdaspur SSP Swarandeep
Singh said they had arrested
the agent, Mukhtiar
Singh, and they were writing
to the Indian embassy in
Kuwait for the 44-year-old
woman’s safe return.
The woman, from
Dhariwal in Gurdaspur,
was sent to Kuwait in July
last year against a payment
of Rs 30,000. “We were told
she’ll get a housekeeping
job of Rs 22,000 a month,”
her son Rohit, 21, told media
. He said his mother got
a visa on arrival. A photograph
of the visa shows she
had been granted entry for
three months. “Mama left
for Kuwait on July 9, 2018,
and she sent Rs 16,000 from
her first salary, which reassured
us of her safety. We
were happy,” he said.
But the dream fell
apart. Rohit said his mother
stopped calling often.
“When she called, she would
talk for less than a minute
and sounded depressed and
frightened. Once she said,
‘Mainu wapis bula lay kisi
tarah’ (get me back somehow),”
said Rohit. My father,
who worked with the
electricity department, approached
the travel agent
for help, but he didn’t listen,
Rohit said. “Six months
ago, my mother made a
video call and I was shocked
to see her lean face and
worry lines on it. I captured
a screenshot. That was the
last time I saw her,” said a
distraught Rohit.
After this, whenever
he called his mother, some
woman on the other side
would refuse to let him
speak to her and told him
they had “bought” Veena
for 1,200 Kuwaiti Dinars.
“The worry about his wife
and inability to help her
made my father, Surinder
Kumar Bedi, unwell and
he died of a heart attack on
May 5,” he added.
Rohit, who quit school
after his father’s death,
works in a mobile repair
workshop to make both
ends meet and raise his
younger brother and sister.
“I even went to the office of
minister of external affairs
in Delhi to give a letter seeking
help,” he said. UK-based
rights activist Jas Uppal
has taken up Veena’s case
at an international level.
Uppal, who is founder
of NGO Justice Upheld,
claimed that following her
group’s intervention a formal
investigation had begun
in Kuwait to locate and
repatriate Kiran to India.
“We are extremely concerned
to learn that it has
come to light that the hapless
women was sold and is
enslaved by a Pakistani national
leaving in Kuwait,”
she said.
HC: Trace weapon looted during Jat
quota agitation or pay owner
Chandigarh: In a rare
case, the Punjab and Haryana
high court has directed
the Rohtak police to trace
a revolver deposited with
local police by a licensed
holder that was allegedly
looted during February
2016 Jat violence, or pay
the value of the revolver to
its owner.
“The respondents (police
authorities) are directed
to trace and return
the weapon in question to
the petitioner within three
months and to renew the
licence. In case, the state is
unable to trace the weapon,
it is directed to pay back
the current market value
to the petitioner within one
week thereafter,” the high
court ordered.
The order will also
bring relief for several other
persons whose weapons
were stolen, snatched, or
looted during the February
2016 violence in which
around 31people were
killed and property worth
crores was damaged.
Rohtak was the epicentre
of the agitation and
around 104 weapons owned
by private persons, which
were deposited at Meham
police station, and a local
gun house were looted and
are yet to be recovered.
The matter reached the
high court as part of a petition
filed by Shiv Kumar of
Rohtak district. In his plea,
the petitioner said that during
the Haryana panchayat
polls, he had deposited his
licensed revolver (No FG-
21601-08) in Meham police
station of Rohtak district
on December 25, 2015.
However, he was informed
that the said revolver was
misplaced or stolen from
the custody of the police
on February 20, 2016. The
petitioner submitted that
neither has he been compensated
for the loss of his
revolver nor was he being
permitted to purchase another
revolver/firearm on
the same licence.
Responding to the petition,
the police authorities
submitted that the weapon
was looted from the police
station during the Jat agitation
in February 2016.
On this, the petitioner
sought directions for reimbursement
of the current
cost of the weapon. He also
placed on record the documents
regarding the value
of the weapon.
Hearing all the parties,
Justice Jitendra Chauhan
directed the Haryana police
to trace the weapon
within three months and if
they are unable to find the
weapon, the current market
price of the revolver
should be paid to the petitioner.
Fares to US, Europe drop by 15-20% as Pak opens airspace
New Delhi: Airlines,
both Indian and foreign,
have quickly begun resuming
suspended flights and
operating diverted ones
on the shorter and direct
pre-February 27 routes after
Pakistan re-opened its
airspace on Tuesday. Flyers
between India and the
west will now increasingly
get more choices for faster
travel at lower airfares.
Travel portal Yatra
COO Sharat Dhall said
airfares to Europe and
Americas have dropped by
15-20% and to Gulf by up to
30%. “Economy return airfares
on Delhi-Abu Dhabi
sector have dropped from
over Rs 30,000 to Rs 17,000.
And for London, they have
dropped from Rs 80,000 to
Rs 63,000 now. We expect a
growth in passenger traffic
on these routes,” he
said.
The flight relief is coming
in thick and fast. Aviation
minister H S Puri on
Wednesday tweeted that
Air India will resume its
triweekly Delhi-Amritsar-
Birmingham service from
August 15, with the flight
operating on Tuesdays,
Thursdays and Saturdays.
IndiGo’s Delhi-Istanbul
fli- ght will be nonstop
from Thursday with
the fuelling stopover not
required over the direct
route. As a result, this
flight’s travel time for
Delhi-Istanbul will reduce
from 10.5 hours (factoring
in the longer route to
Doha and stopover there)
to sixhours-45-minutes
now. Return journey time
will drop from nine to six
hours.
German major Lufthansa
will resume the
straight route over Pakistan
from Friday. George
Ettiyil, Lufthansa Group’s
senior director sales for
south Asia, said, “From
Friday, all our flights from
Frankfurt, Munich and
Zürich will return to operate
on regular routes to
Delhi.”
US carrier United will
resume its daily direct
from Newark (EWR) to
Delhi and Mumbai each
from September 6, advancing
them from the earlier
announced October 26.
“After reviewing and
re-evaluating plans, our
network operations and
planning teams have determined
that we will resume
daily nonstop service
between New York
(Newark-EWR) and Delhi
and Mumbai on September
6, 2019 (eastbound),”
United spokesman Jonathan
Guerin said.