Media Release
Dubai, Jan 18: In a heartening news, Jayaram Shetty, an Indian national from Neermarga, Mangaluru, who was in jail in Saudi Arabia for over a year for a crime that was not committed by him, has been finally released. An employee of Cold Store Trading Company in Dammam, Shetty was allegedly falsely implicated in a theft case after his signature was forcibly got and documents forged to frame him in the case.
Jayaram Shetty married eight years ago and has a three-year-old daughter. His wife and child live in Mangaluru. He is the sole breadearner of the family, serving in the same company in Dammam for more than 6 years with excellent track records. His customers and his colleagues have known him to be hardworking, sincere and simple.
In 2014, there was a theft of two containers of olive oil belonging to the company where Shetty worked as the supervisor, and he was falsely implicated in it.
As told by Shetty, his work hours were from 8 am to 6 pm and the said act of theft was not committed within the purview of the yard where he was supervising. As per records maintained by the company itself, there was no nexus between his duty and the alleged theft of containers, as the theft was committed far away from his yard. His responsibility to take care of the materials was limited to within the yard and once the goods in the container left the yard, the responsibility of the container shifted to the persons who carried the containers to its destination. However, he was falsely accused in the theft, which was committed by unknown persons, and handed over to the police.
It is also alleged that the Company levelled false charges against Shetty and trapped him in a legal battle. He was made redundant by the Company on August 6, 2014, and was forced to remain in a remote house in confinement for more than two months where he was allegedly tortured continuously. He was then coerced into signing on a paper with Arabic text, which he could not read. It was later found out that the Arabic text stated that Shetty had 'committed the crime and sold the goods for profit to an unknown company'.
Based on the forced signature on the documents, on October 17, 2014, Shetty was handed over to Dammam police. Since then, he was in jail and had to face trials in the Dammam court. Again, based on the documents produced to the court, the judgment was pronounced and Shetty was sentenced to 8 months' imprisonment and flogging (lashes) every 15 days. With great pain, Jayaram Shetty bore the sentence pronounced by the court which got executed immediately. The duration of imprisonment got over by August 2015, but Shetty was still not released from jail and was kept imprisoned for more than a year, despite repeated pleas for release. Jayaram Shetty's wife Geetha and brother-in-law Hari Alva pleaded the Indian Mission in Dammam to look into the matter, but in vain.
On August 17, 2015, through some reference, Hari Alva contacted Shodhan Prasad in Dubai who in an earlier instance had helped another Mangalurean in a similar case. Shodhan took up the matter actively with some of his associates in MASA and KWAR associations in Saudi Arabia who promised to help in the case. He also contacted Riyadh-based advocate P A Hameed, who took Jayaram Shetty's case seriously and sent a plea to Bader Al-Qassim, the chief of the Human Rights Commission in Dammam, thus registering the case for a fair judgment. While the study of the case was going on in HRC, Shodhan additionally arranged to send a personal plea from Geetha Jayaram Shetty to Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, the humane and philanthropic prince of the Saudi royal family. However, the case did not get a quick response.
On December 9, 2015 Shodhan sent a request letter to Sushma Swaraj, external affairs minister with copies to all the officials concerned in the ministry, and got a response the very next day. The external affairs ministry gave a reference number for the grievance and asked to log on to 'Madad' portal with the reference, which was done. It was learnt that the Indian Embassy had not been taking the matter seriously until then. On contacting the Indian Embassy in Riyadh, Shodhan was told that the Embassy was aware of the case and would do the needful. The officials also informed that the owner of the company where Jayaram worked had filed another (false) case of theft of money against him, and because of this he was still in jail awaiting hearing in the case.
Later, it was learnt that Jayaram's employer was not attending the hearings in the case, probably knowing that the matter was getting serious through the intervention of diplomatic mission. As he did not appear for many hearings, the court blacklisted him and the case was closed. Taking advantage of this, Jayaram's innocence was pleaded with the jail authorities, and finally, the jail captain agreed to release him provided he got his passport or exit pass from the Indian Embassy immediately.
Shodhan then contacted the Embassy and requested the officials to issue an exit pass in the absence of the passport which was held by the employer who was absconding. The Embassy delivered the exit pass to jail authorities last week, after which Jayaram was told to arrange money for his air ticket. Some of the members of Nama Tuluveru UAE pooled in the money on Shodhan's request, after which the jail authorities arranged a one-way air ticket to Mangaluru.
Jayaram reached Mumbai on Monday January 18 and will reunite with his family after more than a year of struggling in the jail. Now a free bird, Jayaram looks forward to start a new life with a new job somewhere else.It is learnt that Jayaram received some financial support from MASA on his return, but his dues with his employer is still pending, which may be taken up later.