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Victim of visa racket succumbs to distress

The desperate man, who was found lying unconscious in the Indian Consulate premises in Dubai recently, when he visited the mission to obtain an outpass to go back to India, passed away in Rashid Hospital on February 7. The cremation of the deceased took place at the New Sonapur Cemetery in Jebel Ali yesterday.

Narasayyah was among the hundreds of victims of visa rackets from Andhra Pradesh, Khaleej Times has learnt. He arrived in Dubai five months ago on a visit visa for which he had paid Rs125,000 to an agent in India. He had to sell all his belongings to generate the money for his dream journey to the Gulf. But he was cheated by the agent and given a visit visa instead of the promised employment visa for which he had paid through his nose.

Upon reaching Dubai, he realised that he was cheated by the agent, but it was too late to do anything at that point. Narasayyah was wandering in and around Dubai for the past five months without food and shelter. He had no friends or relatives here to cling on to for solace either.

Jobless and penniless, Narasayyah took ill. Since his visit visa had already expired, he decided to return to India. Some good people, who saw him wandering aimlessly on the street, brought him to the consulate. The consulate issued him an outpass, but later the security personnel at the consulate found Narasayyah lying on the ground in a critical stage.

He was unconscious, said a source at the Valley of Love, a social organisation in the UAE which was informed by the consulate security staff about Narasayyah's condition. The deceased was rushed to the Rashid hospital by the social workers and he died there later.

The social workers informed his wife Padma about the death, and she issued them the authority to carry out the last rites in Dubai. The ashes cannot be sent to his family in India because Narasayyah suffered from tuberculosis and as per the country's law, remains of a deceased suffering from any contagious or infectious diseases cannot be repatriated.

They disclosed that the Indian Consulate had made all arrangements for the cremation of the deceased. The body was cremated yesterday as per Hindu rites. The Indian Community Welfare Committee (ICWC) bore part of the expenses for the cremation.

Meanwhile, the management Committee of the Sonapur Cemetery had waived the cremation fees for Narasayyah.

• UAE