Raipur: A 38-year-old man from Raipur in Chhattisgarh was lured to Russia with a job offer and is now being pressured to join the Army there to fight the ongoing war against Ukraine, his family has claimed.
The man, identified as Tikeshwar Sahu, apparently received the job offer through Telegram. He travelled to Russia in September, hoping to secure a better future for his family. Once there, he was detained on trumped up charges and sent to prison. He is now being pressured to join the Army.
Sahu’s family has now approached the government, seeking assistance to get him back.
Sahu had left India hoping to find better employment and eventually take his wife, two children and parents to Russia. However, days after he reached there, he informed his family that he was in jail and being forced into military service, The Indian Express reported.
Sahu’s wife, Manorama, wrote to Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai and Raipur Police Commissioner Sanjeev Shukla on November 4, seeking government intervention, legal assistance, medical care and his safe return to India.
This is similar to the case of 21-year-old Vineet Kumar Dubey from Bilaspur, who also travelled to Russia on a tourist visa after receiving a Telegram job offer. The men were not properly informed about the nature of the work before leaving India, both families have alleged.
They last spoke to him normally on September 16, Sahu’s family said. They received a handwritten letter from a Russian number days later, in which he claimed he had been falsely implicated in a case involving illegal substances.
This was followed by a five-minute video call that left the family distressed. “He was crying a lot on the phone. He told us that he was in jail. He said he was being pressured to join the Russian Army,” a family member said.
He previously worked as a store manager in Raipur and had reportedly been promised a delivery agent’s job in Russia, with assurances that his tourist visa would later be converted into a work visa.
Sahu reportedly suffers from a thyroid condition and has not received his regular medication while detained, his family claimed. They also alleged that he was assaulted.
After coming to know of the situation, the family hired a Russian lawyer and has spent around Rs 1.5 lakh on legal fees. On October 22, the lawyer informed them that Sahu had been hospitalised following a rise in blood pressure.
It has been reported that his relatives have contacted both Indian and Russian embassies, the state police headquarters and political leaders, besides filing a complaint through the Prime Minister’s grievance portal.
“We have received the complaint (in Sahu’s case). As per procedure, we shall send it to the state home department, which, in turn, will send it to the Ministry of External Affairs for further action,” a senior Raipur Police Commissionerate official said.
