Jalandhar woman ‘sold, tortured’ in Saudi Arabia to return home today
JALANDHAR : “It is the moment of immense happiness for me”, said Kulwant Singh, 60, flashing a smile after receiving a call from the external affairs ministry on Tuesday morning, informing him about the homecoming of his wife, Sukhwant Kaur, who was sold and tortured in Saudi Arabia for months.
“I had lost all hope of seeing my wife again in this life,” said Singh, who earns ₹250 a day by working as a labourer at a construction site. “I thank the Almighty,” he said. He is looking forward to Sukhwant’s return on Wednesday. In January, Sukhwant, 55, a resident of Ajtani village in Nurmahal, was taken to Saudi Arabia on a three-month visa by a Delhibased agent.
“Sukhwant was in trouble. She wanted to return but her passport was with the travel agent who has disappeared now,” Kulwant Singh said here.
“On May 7, my wife called me up from a hospital in Ha’il City of Saudi Arabia. She said the travel agent had sold her to a local resident and she was forced to work as a slave in his house and was being badly treated and even tortured,” he said.
HT reported Sukhwant Kaur’s plight on May 16. Jagdish Singh, former sarpanch of Ajtani village, told HT that he received a call from the ministry at 11.14 am informing that Sukhwant coming to Mumbai in flight from Saudi Arabia at 4.15am on Wednesday.
Singh has talked with Vijay P Dwivedi additional personal secretary to external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and requested him to arrange a flight ticket for her arrival in Amritsar .