Chandigarh, April 11
Former Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers and general secretary of the SAD Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa was the first senior Indian political leader to meet all 17 Indians facing death sentence in a UAE prison today.
Dhindsa has been recently elected to the Rajya Sabha from Punjab.
Accompanied by a local businessman, SP Singh, who happens to be from SAS Nagar, Dhindsa spent about 15 minutes with all of them in the UAE prison where incidentally they are still waiting for someone from the Consulate-General of India in Dubai or the lawyer appointed by the Government of India to visit them.
“So far, no one has come to us to inquire about our welfare or our case,” they told Dhindsa, maintaining that their unending agony started more than 15 months ago when they were allegedly implicated in a false case.“None of us was involved in the case in which we have been prosecuted. Unfortunately, neither the Indian diplomatic corps here nor any of our employers ever took any interest in our case,” they rued.
Talking to The Tribune over the telephone from Dubai, Dhindsa assured all 17 Indians, including 16 Punjabis, that their case had been taken up by Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at a personal level.
“I told them that Prakash Singh Badal had already met the Prime Minister in person besides writing to him on the issue. The Prime Minister has assured the Punjab Chief Minister that the Government of India would do its best to get them justice.
“I also told them that the issue of apathy of the Indian Mission in UAE and their employers would also be raised by me on the floor of Parliament,” Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa added.
Though an appeal for the review of death penalty has already been filed and the hearing has been fixed for next month, no one from the office of the lawyer appointed by the Union Government has visited the Indian convicts.
Dhindsa said he found most of them
in good spirits. When told that special congregations, akhand paths and prayer meetings were being held all over Punjab to pray for their early release, they were touched by the gesture of their fellow countrymen besides their families and friends.
“We are innocent and have nothing to do with the murder of the Pakistani boy,” they pleaded and wanted Dhindsa to take up their case more strongly with the Union Government to build international diplomatic pressure on the UAE Government to get the order reviewed.
Dhindsa said he would also meet the Consul-General of India in Dubai in the afternoon to urge him to look after these 17 Indians in prison more sympathetically and on a regular basis. He said he also motivated the local Indian community in Dubai to rally around these 17 persons to extend moral support to them. “All they need now besides legal support is moral support,” Dhindsa added.
