E-Paper
10 of 14 Indians who joined Russian army dead, say victims’ kin
Information was gathered from military sources, and appeals have been made to the Indian government to cease recruitment of Indians and return deceased bodies.
As many as 10 of the 14 missing men in Russia have died in the strife torn Russia-Ukraine border, said one of the people who toured that country to ascertain the status of their missing wards. Notably, during the monsoon session of Parliament, the ministry of external affairs (MEA) had confirmed that 14 Indians were officially missing in Russia.
Jagdeep Kumar, brother of missing Mandeep Kumar from Phagwara, along with kin of missing Prabodh Kumar and Azharuddin from UP’s Azamgarh, had taken the flight to Moscow from New Delhi in April this year. They have returned dejected.
On his return, Jagdeep said they managed to collect information from the army recruitment centres, military base camps and local administrative offices about the missing youth. “Ten missing youths are dead. Bodies of six of them have been kept in Rostov-on-Don hospital for identification,” he claimed.
Among the 14 missing youngsters were nine from Uttar Pradesh’s Azamgarh district, three from Punjab’s Phagwara, Amritsar and Malerkotla, and one each from Maharashtra and Jammu & Kashmir. Their families have been running from pillar to post for the past 18 months to get information if their kin are alive.
Jagdeep met Rajya Sabha member Balbir Singh Seechewal, who had facilitated their trip. He said that among the 10 dead in the Russian army include Tejpal Singh from Amritsar, Arvind Kumar from Lucknow, Dhirendra Kumar from UP, Vinod Yadav, Yogendra Yadav and five others. The four missing Indians are Deepak, Humeshwar Prashad, Azharuddin Khan and Ram Chandra, all from Azamgarh.
According to Jagdeep, he had last spoken to Mandeep on March 3 last year. “He told us that he had been forcefully recruited in the Russian military service and sent to the war zone. Since then, there has been no word from him. One of the survivors, Rakesh Yadav, who returned to India along with five other youths, was with my brother. He has informed that Mandeep got injured during a gunbattle,” he said.
Meanwhile, Seechewal appealed to the central government to work for halting the recruitment of Indians in the Russian army. Referring to the letter he wrote to the foreign minister, he stated that he has requested that the bodies of the Indians who died in the Russian army be sent to their families so they can perform the final rites according to their traditions.
On June 9 last year, the Russian embassy had informed Tejpal’s family that he had died on March 12. The embassy had sought the DNA sample of his mother for identification.
Since Tejpal was declared dead in the line of action, Russia has offered permanent residency status to his family, besides providing a monthly aid of ₹20,000. “I will visit Russia on January 22 to complete the formalities related to the permanent residency case,” said Tejpal’s wife Parminder Kaur.
During Parliament’s monsoon session, minister of state for external affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh, while responding to a written question filed by Rajya Sabha member Balbir Singh Seechewal, had informed the House that 98 had returned after serving in the Russian army. As many as 13 remained in Russian service and 14 others were listed as missing by Russian authorities.
