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When a gift turned into a millstone

Our Correspondent in Abu Dhabi

For S Kothur, the world fell apart one day. Never in his life had he imagined that his own country would treat him as a "terrorist," an enemy of his motherland.

It all began when he went shopping just before his holidays were to begin. Like any other Non-Resident Indian -- not the rich businessman types but the one for whom even living in Dubai was a tough rat race -- Kothur looked forward to his holidays in his home state of Kerala.

And, again, as usual, he went shopping, buying not some expensive goods, but knick-knacks for his family back home. Some sweets, some gift items. Only this time, the memories of it would remain with him for ever --- bitter memories.

He purchased an innocuous looking globe from the friendly neighbourhood shopkeeper. The globe was manufactured in China. In that, the Kashmir area was marked as "disputed." Kothur was unaware of that when he purchased it. It looked quite cute and that's why he had bought it.

Kothur kept the globe as an ornamental piece on the reception desk of his small shop in Kerala. Soon enough, the police came knocking. Kothur was arrested, the globe seized from him, and this NRI was charged "on the suspicion" of being a terrorist having links with Kashmiri militants and others.

Due to the seriousness of the charges made in the First Information Report, the court did not listen to Kothur's protests, denied his application for bail and remanded him to police custody for 14 days. "It was the most horrible time of my life," says Kothur, in a letter to the editor of Gulf News, an English daily from Dubai. In the lock-up, "prisoners abused me and called me names. This was done in connivance with the police," he revealed. He was branded a "Pakistani terrorist."

Kothur's lawyers moved the high court, which granted him bail. For Kothur, it was the first time "I have ever been to a police station or was involved in a police case."

He has also never been ''a member of any political group or party." The case is going on and till now he has spent Rs 50,000 for, as he puts it, "no fault of mine. With apprehension, I am now waiting the verdict." After Kothur's letter was published in the newspaper, there were many letters that followed, most of them expressing horror at the way he was treated.

Many felt that Kothur's case was no different from theirs when they land at an Indian airport from a Gulf destination. The customs and the police tend to view every passenger as a smuggler, if not worse. "We toil and sweat it out here and many of us are not even able to save a lot, but when we go back to our motherland, we are treated as if we were some ugly aliens," says M Chandrasekhar, an accountant.

For Julius Varughese, a school bus driver, "when I returned home, I did not carry anything, not even a two-in-one, but the police did not allow me to get out (of Bombay airport) unless I paid them a hundred dirhams and five hundred Indian rupees."

Varughese and Chandrasekhar feel that Kothur was harassed simply because he was returning from Dubai and the "greedy Indian policemen" simply wanted to make some money.

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