Stranded engineer in Iran urges Centre to secure safe return

, Jun 23: Sanket Pandya, one of the two engineers left stranded in Iran since December 2013, has urged the Indian government to facilitate their early and safe return after the duo were illegally 'confined' following the seizure of their passports when their Goa-based employer got embroiled in a dispute with a company there.

Appreciating the sincere efforts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj towards securing the release of 39 Indians abducted in Iraq after a political turmoil there, Pandya urged the Government to exercise the same political will to bring him and his colleague Mohammed Hussain Khan back from Iran safely.

"Despite repeated and frequent pleas to the previous UPA government to secure our release, nothing happened and we are still held up in Iran for last six months," he told PTI from Iran. Pandya and Khan's passports were allegedly seized by a private engineering firm in Iran's Zanjan city over a business dispute with their employer Power Engineering India Pvt Ltd.

Both were part of the Indian team sent to Iran for supervision of installation and pre-commissioning of a power plant being set up in Zanjan by Vazarjahan Company. But their passports were seized after a contractual dispute arose between the two companies leaving them trapped. In January this year, both of them were shifted to a hotel in Tehran after their 'release' from a guest house in Zanjan, where they were allegedly 'confined'. "

We have been facing a lot of problems after the hotel management in Tehran threw us out some time ago compelling us to stay in a near by "Gurudwara" for ten days as our employer had failed making hotel payments in time," Pandya said.

However, they were shifted back after their company made necessary arrangements, Pandya, a resident of Vadodara said. "We do not have any political backing. So the Government of India is not pursuing our case seriously with the Iranian authorities ever since we are being kept in the Grand Hotel in Iran," he alleged adding this prompted his 63-year old mother Ilaben Pandya to write to Modi last week.

Also, my wife Preeti has approached Sushma Swaraj seeking her intervention to secure my release, he said.

PTI