BATHINDA, May 12 — “I don’t know whether I will come back to India, alive or not. The sub-agents has been forcing me to do labour like a donkey to pay him back the money he spent to get me released from a Greek jail”, writes Boota Singh of Pitho village of this district to his parents in a letter from Greece.

Boota Singh, who went abroad in 1998 in search of greener pastures, has been undergoing nightmares since the day he flew out from Delhi. Cheated by his travel agent, he has been facing death in Greece now.

In the past one and half years, he had been to jail in Ukraine, Romania and Greece a number of times. For months together, he never saw the “sun rise” or “sun set”. He was not allowed to make a phone call to his parents in India by the subagents of his India-based main agent.

The agent identified as Jagga and his father-in-law and one other kin namely Laddi first cheated Boota Singh when he was taken to Moscow instead of Germany for which his parents paid Rs 3 lakh to Jagga Singh.

After 45 days in Moscow, Boota Singh was “sold” to a Pakistan-based sub-agent namely Imran. Imran used to keep Boota Singh without food for days together. After two months' stay with Imran, Boota Singh along with 10 Bangladeshi citizens and nine Indians was taken to the border for sending them to Romania.

Imran after sending 10 Bangladeshi across the border, took all Indians back to one room where they were not given food for eight days at a stretch. Boota Singh along with other Indians freed themselves from the captivity of Imran after breaking the window of the room. All of them were sent to Jail in Udesha town of Ukraine when they surrendered to the police.

“We were not given any food for days together in the jail. Whatever little” ‘dal’ we used to get after a week or so was not eatable as it was infested with worms, said Boota Singh.

“Our hopes became alive when a stranger came to the jail and arranged our release from it. The stranger took us to jungle and in the thick of it he dumped us there. We were made to cover so many kilometers to cross water channels during snowfall by the Stranger. We were again arrested by the Ukraine police”, he added.

“In jail we were beaten up mercilessly. From this jail we were again freed after three months by a Pakistani. He took us into room where we were again maltreated. He, however, allowed us to make a phone call to our agents.”