CHANDIGARH: After over a year-long wait, the mortal remains of a 28-year-old youth, Mandeep, from Goraya in Punjab have reached his hometown. He was duped by travel agents into joining the Russian army and lost his life in the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war.
However, the family has refused to cremate the body till the Punjab Police arrest the local travel agents who had sent him abroad.
It was about two months back that the family came to know about Mandeep’s death after DNA samples provided by them matched with unidentified remains lying unclaimed in a Russian hospital. He had a congenital defect in his left leg. It is believed that he would have died in March 2024.
Talking with TNIE, his elder brother Jagdeep Kumar, who recently returned from Russia after searching for his brother, said that his brother died in a drone attack while fighting against Ukraine.
"We have brought back his body as it was received at the Delhi airport yesterday, but we will not cremate it till the police arrest the travel agents named in the First Information Report (FIR). For that to happen, we would keep the brother's body on the road or block the highway, or we could even take the body to the police station. At present, the body is in the mortuary, ‘’ he said.
Jagdeep said that for months, he went on going to the offices of the various state police officers and others, but nobody helped him.
"Neither the Punjab nor the Central Governments helped us locate my brother, and they only made false promises and provided no information about my brother."
He added that he last spoke to his brother in March 2024. Thus, he had no option but to go to Russia himself and seek help from the Indian embassy there and the Russian authorities to search for him in the camps, jails and hospitals.
Jagdeep said that he had hired a local lawyer there, through whom the formalities were completed. He later informed me that Mandeep’s body had been found in Rostov. "Then I sent my DNA sample for the second time in November, and within a week, the death was confirmed," he said.
"At one stage, I even planned to visit the Rostov-on-Don war zone but was stopped,’’ he added. Jagdeep said he visited Russia in March and again in October last year.
Jagdeep said that Mandeep and four others travelled to Armenia in 2023 with the intention of migrating to Italy. "They were lured by an advertisement on social media, and thus they approached travel agents from Bholath in Kapurthala district, including one Sandeep Hans, who promised safe passage, and we paid Rs 31.40 lakh to the agents. But instead of Italy, they were taken to Russia, where they were allegedly forced into the Russian army. Due to this, our house was mortgaged.’’
He alleged that many Indian nationals who travel on tourist visas are detained at airports on minor pretexts and are being forced into the Russian army with promises of employment, they are sent to jail and mentally tortured.
Jagdeep urged the Union and Punjab governments to intervene urgently to stop the recruitment of Indian nationals into the Russian army.
Innocent Indian youngsters are still being lured and forced into the Russian army. "I have information that at least 14 more Indians have died. Their families have still been searching for them for over a year,” he said.
As per the official figures, around 200 Indians were recruited into the Russian army, but Jagdeep claims the actual number is far higher, around 800 to 900 Indians, recruitment is still ongoing.
"I have shared with the Indian Embassy details of locations where the bodies of at least 12 other Indians, including two from Punjab, are kept,’’ he said.
He added that he has a list of 14 Indians, of whom 10 are confirmed dead, and the rest are missing.
He said that he was offered monetary compensation by the Russian army for his brother’s death, but he refused to accept it.