Monalisa Das | The News Minute | April 2, 2015 | 08:30 am ISTFollow @Mona_Lisa_Das “Because of the availability of no jobs here, some people open fraud institutions targeting the rural youth. They’ll give them training and promise them good jobs and high salaries in other countries. They even arrange for their passports and visas. Once the boys land in foreign land, they are totally at the mercy of the employers,” says Manoj Kumar*, a former merchant navy officer based out of Jodhpur in Rajasthan. “I have also heard that some men are also beaten up and tortured,” he tells The News Minute. Kumar is helping the family of Kishan Singh, a youth from Jodhpur who worked in the merchant navy in Malaysia and is said to have died recently under mysterious circumstances. Twenty-two-year old Kishan Singh left for his job with a company called the Hawk Liner Shipping Sdn Bhd in Malaysia on February 10 this year.Five days later, Singh’s family was informed that their son had fallen overboard into the Sarawak river near Muar Tebas. According to local reports, Singh’s body had been washed ashore and was later spotted by a group of fishermen.On March 28, Singh’s body was sent to Jodhpur, but his family is crying foul. The family doubts that the body is of their son and has been raising questions over the “motive” behind his death.“The body is in a highly decomposed state. It is unidentifiable. We have demanded for a DNA test to be conducted to establish whether it is Kishan’s body or not,” says Manohar Singh, a relative of Kishan, adding that the post mortem report stated the cause of death as drowning.Kishan SinghThey have now filed a case in the court. “The police refused to file an FIR saying ‘Yeh bahar ka case hai’ (the incident happened in another country).”The body, said to be of Kishan, was found in a t-shirt shirt and underwear. “Where would his trousers go? Or did he decide to jump from the vessel after taking off his trousers? We want to know whether his death was an accident or was he murdered and whether this is his body,” Manohar asserts.The first message that the family received of their son having drowned was through Kishan's cell phone. A man claiming to be Kishan's friend supposedly gave them the information through WhatsApp. When the anxious family called him back, he only answered the phone once to confirm the news. Ever since, Manohar says, the number is active but no one answers any calls. Kumar, who is assisting Singh's family with the legal and administrative work of the case, feels that the youth could have been a victim of a “white collar organized crime.” Kishan joined a Malaysian company in 2012 through an agent after he finished a course in a local institute. Kumar states that the working of these institutes, agents and the company that ultimately hire the men, is very shady. Kishan Singh (right),with a friend“I have also worked on a ship. And people just don’t randomly fall in the sea. And why is that the company he worked for has not called the parents even once?,” he asks.Kishan is survived by his parents and three sisters who have been devastated by the news of his death. According to Manohar, Kishan worked with the firm for close to 16 months, but some amount of his salary has not been paid to him. “In February, he had gone back to collect that amount,” he says.The family has approached the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) demanding a fair probe into Kishan’s case, but there is only so much they can do. “Kishan’s family hails from a very weak financial background. His parents can’t even afford to make calls abroad,” rues Manohar.*name changed to protect identity(All images provided by Singh's family)TweetFollow @thenewsminute
