NEW DELHI: As many as sixty-nine Indian nationals still await release from the Russian army while the CBI has found “sufficient evidence” against 10 human traffickers who facilitated sending the youths to the European nation, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said in the Lok Sabha during the question hour on Friday.
Replying to a question by Kerala MP Adoor Prakash, Jaishankar said in all, 91 Indians had been recruited into the Russian army. “Eight of them have died, 14 returned with our assistance and 69 await their release,” the minister said.
Jaishankar said the issue had been taken very seriously. “I have raised the matter with my Russian counterpart. Prime Minister Narendra Modi too took it up with President Vladimir Putin,” he said.
The minister said the Russian authorities claimed to have entered into a contract with the Indians for service in their army. “We don’t subscribe to that. In many cases, there are reasons to believe that our nationals were misled. They were assured of some other job, but were drafted into the Russian army,” he said. To a supplementary question asked by Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi seeking some kind of action, Jaishankar said, “We should not jump the gun. It’s important to hold the Russia government to its word… Indian citizens should not be serving in foreign armies.”
Jaishankar, replying to Adoor earlier, said the CBI had registered criminal cases against 19 individuals and entities. The 14 people who returned had been examined, he said. “Sufficient evidence has emerged against 10 human traffickers whose identity we know. Two accused were arrested in April and two others in May. They are in judicial custody,” he said. The minister said one person was from Gujarat and his family wanted the cremation to take place in Russia itself. Another case was of UP and the mortal remains were being brought back.
On getting back the mortal remains of those killed in Russia, S Jaishankar said of the eight who had died, the remains of four had been sent to India. “In four other cases, including one each from Punjab and Haryana, the DNA samples of families have been sent and further details are awaited,” he said.