look news india
An Indian youth, who worked as a diamond cutter in Surat, Gujarat, has been mysteriously missing for the last four months after joining the Russian army on the Russia-Ukraine war front. Due to the young man being without contact for a long time, his family living in his hometown Surat is in a bad condition. The family members have now made an emotional appeal to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) for intervention to bring him back to India safely.
According to the information received, the young man, trapped in the web of financial crisis and golden dreams of a better future, had allegedly reached Russia through fraudulent agents. There he was promised a high-paying job as a security assistant or non-combatant helper in the army, but the ground reality turned out to be quite the opposite. Since his deployment at the front in the war zone, he has not been able to have any contact with his family.
The missing youth worked as an ordinary artisan in a diamond factory in Surat. Amidst the recent recession in the diamond industry and family financial problems, he was looking for better employment options. During this time he came in contact with local and international human trafficking agents. The agents assured him that he would not have to take part in any military action in the Russian Army, but would instead be posted to Moscow or secure areas in non-military services such as assistants, drivers or canteen staff at high salaries.
After arranging lakhs of rupees, the young man left for Russia on the pretext of tourist visa and work permit. Upon arriving there, his passport and legal documents were reportedly confiscated by agents and after a basic brief military training he was sent to the frontline.
According to family members, their last conversation with the young man was about four months ago. In that last phone call, he tearfully told that he had been forcibly deployed to a very sensitive and active war zone near the Ukraine border. He had told the family that there is a severe threat of drone attacks and missile shelling here all the time and the situation there is very scary due to not understanding the language.
Since that last call his phone has been switching off continuously. The family members tried to contact the agents, but the agents have either gone underground or are not giving any satisfactory response. The elderly parents and wife are in deep depression due to no news of their son for four months.
This is not the first case of Indian citizens being fraudulently recruited into the Russian Army amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The Government of India and the Ministry of External Affairs have taken this entire matter very seriously. The Government of India has been continuously raising this issue with the Russian authorities through the Russian Embassy in New Delhi and the Indian Embassy in Moscow.
In the high-level meetings held with the top leadership of Russia at the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister level, a clear demand has been made that all Indian citizens who have been wrongfully or fraudulently included in the Russian Armed Forces, should be immediately discharged and deported to India. Due to the continuous diplomatic efforts of the Ministry of External Affairs, dozens of Indian youth have so far been brought back home safely, while the legal process is going on in many other cases.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has already registered FIRs and conducted raids against visa consultants and human trafficking networks operating in many states of the country, who were pushing youth on the war front by luring high-paying jobs in Russia through social media.
The victim’s family from Surat has now submitted a formal letter to the local administration, District Collector and the Ministry of External Affairs, demanding contact with the Russian Defense Ministry through DNA samples and identity documents. The family has folded hands and requested that the government should use diplomatic channels to find out in which camp or hospital their son is and that he should be brought back to his country alive and safe as soon as possible.