Vinod Menon was one of nine prisoners at Al-Hair jail who were pardoned to mark the return of Crown Prince Sultan, deputy premier and minister of defense and aviation, to the Kingdom. They were sentenced to jail for their involvement in drugs-related cases.
Four of them were from the state of Kerala, while the others were from Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh. All were serving sentences between five and 20 years.
Indian Embassy officials visited the jail to identify the prisoners, but had difficulties identifying 40-year-old Menon, who knew only Arabic and had forgotten his personal details as he had been locked up for so long.
He received his 20-year sentence in 1999. Although Menon had come to the Kingdom for the first time, his forged passport already had a Saudi-exit re-entry visa, with the holder’s name given as “Mohideen.”
“We had a hard time identifying Menon since he had come to the Kingdom on a forged passport with a Muslim name,” an Indian Embassy source told Arab News on Friday.
He added that Menon could only vaguely remember his hometown and name. He had also given contact numbers in India that had been disconnected around five years ago. “After persistent inquiries, the mission’s Welfare Department managed to trace Menon’s close relatives and friends living in the Kingdom,” he said.
The data collected from them helped the mission issue an emergency certificate facilitating his travel to India.
According to information received by the mission, Menon’s father had died while he was still in prison and his mother is currently living with his married sister in Ernakulam district.
There are around 1,400 Indian prisoners languishing in Saudi jails. The upcoming visit of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Saudi Arabia later this month will witness the signing of an extradition treaty between the Kingdom and India. There is speculation Singh will ask the Saudi government to release around 700 Indian prisoners convicted of petty offenses in the Kingdom.
Besides looking after the interests of Indian prisoners, the mission’s Welfare Department facilitates the repatriation of dead bodies to India, transport patients home and even supplements compensation paid by sponsors for accidents, deaths and loss of limbs.
Indian expatriates and philanthropists finance the Indian Embassy’s Workers’ Welfare Fund.
