BENGALURU, 25 MARCH

The daughter of a 65-year-old man, who has been languishing in Saudi Arabia’s jail for the past nine months, has appealed to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and also urged the Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar’s help in bringing back her father to the country.

Speaking to Salar News Shainaz Banu said that her father Dandakere Ismail, a resident of Ombatthukere, near Mangaluru, has been working in Riyadh and Dammam, for the past 27 years. “My father has been languishing in jail as someone has cheated him and foisted a false case against him, he is unwell and we are in dire straits as he is the sole breadwinner of the family.”

In a letter to the Foreign Minister, Banu copies of which are with Salar News, she said that her father has been running a dry cleaning business in partnership with a local Saudi sponsor for 10 years but the business saw a downfall and Ismail was unable to pay the sponsor his money.

Ismail took a loan of 9,000 Saudi Riyals (Rs 2,00,000 ) from an Egyptian to pay shop rent. The local sponsor handed over the shop to someone else without giving him any money he had invested in it. His brother-in-law Hassan Mohammed said, “I received a telephone call from the Indian Embassy in Riyadh stating that there was a financial issue involved and the embassy was trying to sort it out with the help of philanthropists and charitable institutions.”

Hassan claimed the Egyptian forged a promissory note demanding 30,000 Saudi Riyals (Nearly Rs. 7 lakh) from Ismail which led to his arrest.

Ismail’s wife, a paralysis patient, has only two daughters. Banu said, “For nine months, we have been unable to pay the house rent, buy medicine for our mother, and we also cannot provide any legal help to rescue our father.”

Home Minister G Parameshwara had told the Legislative Assembly earlier that the State government will create a separate ministry to take care of the affairs of Non-Resident Indian Kannadigas.