Families of youth stuck in Armenia jail meet MP Balbir Singh Seechewal

Deepkamal Kaur

Jalandhar, June 18

Days after 12 youths, whose video of being stuck in an Armenia jail went viral, their families met Rajya Sabha MP Balbir Singh Seechewal at Sultanpur Lodhi near here and appealed to him to pursue the case with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). They were reportedly crossing the Armenia-Georgia border illegally around February-March when they got caught up by the police there.

Book travel agents, says Rajya Sabha MP

• Rajya Sabha MP Balbir Singh Seechewal said he was in touch with the Ministry of External Affairs and that the Indian Embassy in Armenia had also been contacted
• He appealed to the people of Punjab not to fall into the hands of travel agents. and demanded that a case should be registered against the travel agents who have cheated them

Seechewal had shared the video of these youths on his Facebook page few days back after which the families began reaching out to him for help. The youth who are lodged in Armavir jail there since the past three months or so have said that they were undergoing trial there and feared that they could be sentenced to three to six years of imprisonment. They have sought help from the Indian Government for their release.

So far, the identity of 10 of them is known — Ram Pal from Khanna, Rajot Singh from Patiala, Ajay from Jalandhar, Gurmeet Singh from Kaithal, Shivam Kumar from Karnal, Happy Singh and Gurjant Singh from Pilibhit in UP, Major Singh from Uttarakhand, Bajrang Lal from Rajasthan and Maniruzzama from West Bengal. The Indian Embassy has also reached out to them and met them in jail. These youths had posted a video on social media that they had been misguided by the travel agents.

Victim Ram Pal’s brother Roshan Lal told Seechewal that a travel agent named Ladi Gill in Armenia took Rs 9 lakh from him to send him from Kolkata to Italy. He said his brother went to Armenia in December 2023 from where they reached Georgia border on March 11 this year but he and six other boys were caught by the Armenian army.

Similarly, Gurjant Singh’s brother said he went to Armenia on December 19 last through agent named Malkit Singh, who took Rs 4.5 lakh and had promised to get a good job for him there. “Gurjant Singh found an agent named Rahul in Armenia, who was to take him to Portugal for Rs 3.5 lakh, but was caught while crossing the Georgian border on April 5. Rajasthan-based Bajrang Lal was also caught along with him”.

A 23-year-old youth named Ajay, who went to Armenia from Sangatpur village of Shahkot, is also learnt to be in jail. His family members told that Ajay had to go to Italy but was caught from the Georgia border in March 2024.