Indian labourer in Dubai visits court 20 times to return home; Sushma Swaraj flies him back
48-year-old Jagannathan Selvaraj, who had walked a distance of 1,000 km over a period of two years to attend court proceedings in Dubai just to obtain a flight ticket home, has been brought back.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said the government has helped Jagannathan, who hails from Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu, to return to his village. Swaraj, currently undergoing treatment at AIIMS for kidney failure, had last week sought a report from the Indian Consulate in Dubai following media reports about Selvaraj, reports PTI. Swaraj tweeted,
"We have brought him back to India and sent him to his village. He went up and down to the court 20 times over a year. That made it 1,000 km."
Selvaraj wanted to come home after his mother passed away in an accident, but was refused leave to attend her funeral. "My case number was 826 and I had to walk two hours in the morning to reach the court in Dubai. I used to get up early morning at 4 am on the days the court was to hear my case. Every 15 days, I had to walk all the way to the court because I did not have the money to pay for bus or taxi," Selvaraj told Khaleej Times.
He had been living in a public park in Sonapur for several months. A bus trip to the court in Karama area costs a few dirhams, but Selvaraj did not have money to travel by bus and was forced to spend two hours for a one-way trip and another two hours for the return journey after every court hearing.
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