Chandigarh, August 30
Intervention by the Punjab and Haryana High Court has resulted in the homecoming of eight Indians from Baghdad. Another 11 are on their way back. The Punjab Police also told the High Court that eight criminal cases have been registered so far against travel agents “in relation to nine youths”. Further investigations were on. A letter by Joint Secretary (Consular) PM Meena addressed to Union of India’s counsel OS Batalvi was also placed before the Bench of Justice MM Kumar and Justice Gurdev Singh.
The letter said 26 workers were brought to Baghdad and the embassy has taken charge of them by arranging for their food and accommodation.
Taking up the matter, the Bench made Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs an additional respondent, while expressing satisfaction on the progress made for “bringing back the Indian workers whose services were sought to be exploited for clearing the remnants of the 2003 gulf war- bombs and missiles from the agricultural fields”.
The Bench also expressed the hope that the good work being done by the respondents would “hopefully” continue and “all these workers would be brought back to the motherland with the assistance of the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs and if need be by spending some amount from the Indian Community Welfare Fund meant for emergency services. The Bench also asked amicus curiae Anil Malhotra and Haryana Additional Advocate-General Piyush Kant Jain to prepare a report after interacting with the workers brought back.
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