E-Paper
Billionaire's daughter Vasundhara Oswal cries in disturbing audio: ‘They’re taking my phone’
The billionaire Oswal family has released an audio recording of the last call made by Vasundhara Oswal while under detention in Uganda.
The billionaire Oswal family has released an audio recording of the last call made by Vasundhara Oswal while under detention in Uganda. Vasundhara Oswal is the elder daughter of Indian-origin Swiss billionaire Pankaj Oswal, who has spent over 20 days in detention under murder charges.
Her family claims her imprisonment in Uganda is illegal and the man she was accused of murdering, a former employee of their sprawling business empire, has already been found living in Tanzania.
“They’re taking my phone”
In a post shared on Vasundhara Oswal’s Instagram account, her sister Ridi Oswal wrote: “My sister, Vasundhara Oswal, has been unjustly imprisoned in Uganda for over two and a half weeks, in a prison meant for those convicted of heinous crimes like murder. Yet, she remains behind bars without any evidence against her, and without any valid reason to hold her.”
Ridi Oswal also released a recording of Vasundhara’s last phone call before her phone was taken away.
“They’re taking my phone. They’re taking my phone,” the 26-year-old was heard screaming tearfully, even as a voice at the other end protested this treatment.
“She’s talking to her family, you cannot deny that. They cannot take your phone,” the voice at the other end was heard saying.
Ridi Oswal said the audio was taken when her sister was 90 hours into her detention in Uganda.
“You will hear an audio of how she was stripped of her freedom and denied a single phone call, even though she was being illegally held, this audio was taken when she was 90 hours in and had an unconditional release order,” she wrote on Instagram.
In an earlier post, Ridi Oswal had said that Ugandan authorities snatched her sister’s phone, causing her to have an anxiety attack. She also claimed that Vasundhara Oswal was kept in disgusting conditions and not allowed to contact her family or lawyers.
Charges against Vasundhara Oswal
Vasundhara Oswal is the 26-year-old daughter of Swiss industrialist Pankaj Oswal and his wife Radhika Oswal. Pankaj Oswal is the son of industrialist Abhay Kumar Oswal, founder of Oswal Agro Mills and Oswal Greentech. The Oswal Group Global has interests in petrochemicals, real estate, fertilisers, and mining.
Vasundhara Oswal was detained in Uganda on October 1. According to Fortune India, she was in Uganda as part of the Group’s $100 million investment to establish East Africa’s first grain-based Extra-Neutral Alcohol (ENA) production facility.
Oswal was arrested without formal charges during a visit to a family business site on October 1.
In an open letter to Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, Pankaj Oswal claimed the charges against his daughter stem from a former employee taking a loan of $200,000 from the family. The former employee accused Vasundhara of kidnapping with intent to kill, but the billionaire Oswal family claims these charges are trumped up by the ex-employee to avoid paying the loan.
“The worst part - the man she has been accused of kidnapping and murdering, the one on whom this entire case is falsely based, was already found in Tanzania, in state custody, and awaits his own investigations there. When Tanzanian authorities apprehended him, he was found with his passport, clearly indicating that he was not kidnapped. And definitely isn’t murdered,” Ridi Oswal said in her Instagram post.
