Media Release

Jeddah, Jan 25: With repeated follow ups by the India fraternity Forum, three out of four Mangalureans at the city's jail, booked under STC illegal call routing are likely to be released within a month. After paying a negotiated fine amount to STC, honorable judge Saad Al Garni who is probing the case has ordered the release of these three prisoners. The accused namely Riyaz Bajpe, Fairoos Ullal and Nasir Bandar will be released from jail as soon as the release formalities are complete.

As per the complaint registered by STC telecom company in March 2003, 8 Mangalureans had been implicated for allegedly passing and routing of illegal telephone calls and were sentenced by the court with a fine of 6.7 million SAR and imprisonment. The family members also disclosed that these unfortunate young men were made scapegoats for another's wrongdoings as they are unable to communicate in Arabic or English.

The India Fraternity Forum had formed an ad-hoc committee in 2010 for the follow-up of the case. Since then IFF has been constantly in touch with the Indian Consulate of Jeddah and had approached many Indian businessmen and other NRI donors to support them in raising sufficient funds to pay the fine imposed on these prisoners required for their release. Altaf Ullal took the responsibility to raise the required fund from the generous donors of the Indian community. He has been successful in approaching and convincing the donors to provide financial support for these 3 young men who are likely to be released next month.

IFF had appointed lawyer Hamid Jameel to represent the accused in court for the release of the accused and IFF’s hard work will be paid off. IFF has done an excellent job of releasing four other prisoners charged in a similar case previously. The lawyer confirmed that the last person accused namely Mohammed Shareef Kannur is also expecting to be released from jail soon.