The worker, identified as 26-year-old Rajinder, was hit by a fast moving car while he was crossing a street in Najran. The police tracked down the hit-and-run driver, who was a Saudi youth aged 22, and have remanded him till the inquiry is over.

According to S. D. Moorthy, consul welfare at the Indian Consulate in Jeddah, Rajinder had to go to Najran since his company had won a new construction contract in that part of the Kingdom.

“Rajinder had hardly spent a week in Najran when he met with the accident,” the diplomat said, adding that doctors at the hospital could not say when he would come out of coma.

“We have taken up the matter with his company M/s Zuhra Khudair Trading Establishment in Riyadh and they have promised to do the needful,” Moorthy said, adding the accident took place at 7 a.m. on Jan. 5.

Rajinder is from Medipalli village in the Karim Nagar district of Andhra Pradesh. He has been working as a laborer for the company for the past 12 months. He was sent to Najran along with four others to work in a new construction site assigned by his company.

Moorthy said Rajinder is on a life support system at King Khalid Hospital in Najran. According to doctors his condition is critical, the diplomat said, adding he is still not out of danger.

Indian social workers in Najran are looking after the interests of Rajinder. Moorthy said the consulate is trying to contact Rajinder's family.