Bahrain: Indian worker rescued

An Indian worker, who was kept in chains and locked up by his sponsor in a room for nearly 24 hours in Bahrain, was rescued by Indian embassy officials, a media report said on Sunday.

Dharmarasan Sengottai, 24, from Tamil Nadu, came to Bahrain two years ago after paying BD1,250 for a tailor's visa.

According to his sponsor, the shop owner, Sengottai ran away few months after arriving in Bahrain and as his visa had expired on September 21, the sponsor wanted to send him back to India.

"I kept him chained because I feared he might escape through the air-conditioner hole in the room," Gulf Daily News quoted the shop owner as saying.

"I was also hoping that if I kept him for a while, another Indian man who had run away with him would try to contact him and I could catch both of them and send them back," he added. The sponsor was planning to deport him on Sunday.

Following an anonymous tip-off at around 6.30 pm on Saturday, an embassy official along with Co-ordination Committee of Indian Associations general secretary John Iype rushed to the building in A'Ali where Sengottai was reportedly kept locked up.

"We called the Isa Town police, who arrived soon and made the sponsor open the door," said Iype.

Meanwhile, a critically-ill Indian man is stranded in Bahrain because his sponsor is demanding BD600 to withdraw an allegedly bogus runaway case against him.

Neroth Chathu, aged 51, is being treated at the Salmaniya Medical Complex for kidney failure. He arrived in Bahrain in 2000 and in 2002 his sponsor agreed he could go home, provided he paid the sponsor BD70 and bought his own air ticket.