RIYADH: An Indian worker who is in intensive care in a Riyadh hospital after being assaulted by a supervisor at work will be sent home soon, embassy officials said yesterday.
Officials from the Indian Embassy’s Welfare Department visited the man, Sudheesh Kalathil Parambil, who was brought to the hospital by a group of social workers who found him in a critical condition in Al-Kharj, a city 80 km from Riyadh. A do-gooder had taken Parambil from the southern city of Khamis Mushayt and dropped him off in Al-Kharj, which is over 800 km away.
Parambil, 33, worked as a laborer at a construction site in Barak, 150 km from Khamis Mushayt. The supervisor, an Egyptian national, assaulted Parambil when he intervened on behalf of a colleague who was being manhandled by the supervisor.
The embassy’s welfare officer said the mission was struggling to contact Parambil’s sponsor. He added that in the absence of a response from the sponsor, the embassy would send Parambil back to India as quickly as possible.
The embassy will issue a single journey emergency passport to Parambil and will bear the cost of the air ticket from the embassy’s welfare fund. The embassy has also informed the Foreign Ministry in Riyadh about the beating.
According to the hospital, Parambil sustained internal injuries. “He already had some health complications and the recent assault has worsened the situation,” said a hospital worker.
Parambil, who is from a poor family from a village in Ernakulam district of Kerala, came to the Kingdom in mid-2003.
The Federation of Kerala Associations (FOKA) in Saudi Arabia is looking after the victim’s interests and has written letters to the Human Rights Commission and the National Society for Human Rights asking them to investigate the matter and press charges.
R. Muraleedharan from FOKA said doctors advised embassy officials to repatriate him to India since his condition might worsen. He added that Parambil’s sponsor should be brought to book and suitable compensation be paid to the victim.
Death in airport lounge
Meanwhile, an Indian worker who was going home after four and half years died of a heart attack at the departure lounge of King Khaled International Airport in Riyadh on Saturday night.
Koya Kutty, 52, who worked as a laborer in Qunfuda, collapsed at Gate No. 16 a few minutes before he was to board an Air India flight for Mumbai, where he was to take another flight to Calicut in his home state.
Kutty, who had been working in the Kingdom for the past 12 years, is survived by his wife and five children.
Authorities are awaiting instructions from his relatives to arrange a burial.
