Hyderabad: Six-year-old Siddarth, who sees his cousins being dropped to school daily by their dad, also wants to be taken to school by his father. He keeps telling his mom Lakshmi that he won’t go to school if his dad does not drop him.
Little does he know that his father, Motam Naresh from Jagtial district, who was working as a daily wage earner in Saudi Arabia, is now behind bars after being found in possession of banned tablets and sentenced to life imprisonment (24 years).
He’s not the only one. There are at least five persons from Jagtial and Nizamabad districts who have been caught with the same tablets. Doctors say that the tablet, called Tramadol, is a pain-relieving drug that is banned in Gulf countries. Due to the high price difference, people take it with them from here, not knowing the consequences and in the process they get trapped.
Naresh had taken two two strips of Tramadol tablets with him for his personal use and was arrested by local police for bringing the tablets into the country as it was an offence. “Naresh was unaware of this, but he was still arrested,” his wife Lakshmi said.
Naresh’s parents said that they have submitted representations to the External Affairs Minister and Telangana minister K.T. Rama Rao and they have assured them of help, but nothing happened.
Dr Rajesh K., a general surgeon, said that Tramadol is widely used as a pain reliever. “Its use is banned in the Gulf. People travelling from here, being mostly illiterate, are unaware of this and end up being arrested. They should apprise themselves of the dos and don’ts before they travel,” he said. Migrant rights activist Ranjith Kadarla said that those planning to go to the Gulf to work should be given clear instructions on what they should not carry.
