RIYADH, 13 June 2004 — Saudi police and Indian diplomatic mission are looking for at least 25 Indian workers who their companies claim ran away with hundreds of thousands of riyals in cash and kind since January this year.

The 25 Indian expatriates worked mainly in sales and marketing jobs in companies across the Kingdom.

They included Shaikh Masrath, who went missing with SR39,300 cash and a Mitsubishi truck on June 5, company and diplomatic sources said here yesterday.

Masrath, 42, worked for the Riyadh-based Rajhi & Shawaf Company, according to Fakher Al-Shawaf, the company’s general manager.

Masrath, who had been working for the company as a messenger and driver for 10 years, comes from Karimnagar district in Andhra Pradesh, he said.

The incident has sent shockwaves through the company, half of whose 400 staff are Indian. It has posted a substantial reward for information leading to Masrath’s capture. The company has also sought the assistance of the Indian Embassy to locate the suspect and initiate official action against him.

The Passports Department has not been able to locate the suspect in any of the Kingdom’s prisons. Traffic police and the Indian mission cannot find Masrath and his truck.

A special wing at the Indian Embassy has the job of handling all cases of workers in financial fraud or who run away with cash from their sponsors, according to V.V. Narayanan, chief of the welfare department at the embassy.

“Six workers out of the 25 who allegedly disappeared with cash have already gone back to India,” he said.

Embassies have no executive powers in such cases and can only inform the government and the district administration about the suspect against whom the complaint is lodged.

The Kingdom has no extradition treaty with India or with a number of other Asian countries where most of the Kingdom’s expatriate workers come from.

Local police are also still looking for Indian salesman Christopher Devdas, who his company claimed ran away with SR563,667 in cash.

Devdas, who had been working for Supreme Foods Company for eight years, was reported missing since March 5 with the cash from his sales.