Duped by agents, 2 Punjab youths in Indonesian jail for a year

PK Jaiswar

Amritsar, June 23

The family members of Gurmej Singh (22) of Gaggomahal village and his cousin Ajaypal Singh (22) of Modhe village located near the International Border are a dejected lot today.

The two cousins have been languishing in an Indonesian jail for around a year now after being duped by immigration fraudsters. They have been falsely implicated in a murder case and the government has not been able to ensure their safe return so far, they alleged.

Gurmej Singh’s father Sahib Singh said the youths had been convicted in a murder case in Indonesia and sentenced to imprisonment for seven-and-a-half years.

“Cabinet minister Kuldeep Dhaliwal and MP Gurjit Aujla had assured us that everything would be done to ensure their safe return, but to no avail so far,” said Sahib Singh. He said he mortgaged his land and other property to send his son to the US. Ajaypal’s father Sukhchain Singh also mortgaged his agricultural land for sending Ajaypal abroad.

The police have failed to make any breakthrough in the case even after over a year of registering FIRs.

Gurmej and Ajaypal reportedly came in contact with Charanjit Singh Sodhi of Delhi through Facebook. The agent convinced them that he could arrange their safe journey to the US for Rs 35 lakh each.

A payment of $2500 (around Rs 2 lakh) each was made to the agent and the two cousins left for Delhi from Amritsar on May 5 last year. Four days later, they boarded a flight to Indonesia. On reaching there, they were taken to a room by Charanjit Singh Sodhi’ accomplice Sunny Kumar, who hails from Hoshiarpur, and his men. They took their documents, including passports, into their possession. The youths were tortured and forced to make misleading calls to their families that they were safe and would soon start their journey to the US, Sahib Singh said. They demanded that the remaining amount of the deal be transferred to them immediately.

On May 13, however, a dispute arose between the agents over money. Taking advantage of the situation, the cousins managed to flee from there. They reached the airport and made calls to their families narrating their woes. They asked their families to arrange return tickets for them.

Having received tickets on WhatsApp, they called up their families to tell that they had obtained the boarding passes. However, before they could board the plane, they were arrested by the Indonesian authorities. The families later came to know about their arrest in a murder case.

After their arrest in Indonesia, the Amritsar rural police registered separate FIRs against travel agents Charanjit Singh Sodhi of Delhi and Sunny Kumar of Hoshiapur. However, the police have failed to make any arrest so far.

Attari DSP Sukhjinder Singh Thapar said the aggrieved families did not have the address of Sodhi. Due to that reason, the police had not been able to trace him so far. Sunny was already in Indonesia, he said.