Hyderabad: The family of Hyderabad techie Prashant Vaindam, who was arrested in Pakistan for illegally entering the country, has denied the charges that he was a spy. Vaindam’s father Babu Rao has told police authorities in Hyderabad that his son had gone missing in 2017 and he had lodged a complaint with the police about him being untraceable.
He made the statement after Pakistani authorities declared that they had arrested two Indians, including Vaindam, in Bahawalpur for illegally entering the country. While Pakistan says they were arrested last week, Rao revealed that he had received the information back in 2017 about his arrest from an official who claimed to be from the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), the foreign intelligence agency of India. “But I did not believe them at the time”, he said.
The other person arrested by Pakistan was identified as Durmi Lal, a farmer from Madhya Pradesh.
“My son is not a spy. He was a lovelorn wanderer who wanted to go to Switzerland in search of the woman he was in love with”, Rao said.
Vaindam, a software engineer went missing while he was working in a Bengaluru based company after his girlfriend left India for Switzerland. Apparently he wanted to go to Europe to find her.
Indian authorities, including the police officials in Hyderabad, believe that he was duped by the travel agents who promised to send him from Pakistan using forged documents by taking him there through an illegal route. “But once he reached Pakistan by crossing the Rajasthan border, the agents abandoned him there after taking huge amount of money”, officials said. Prashant believed that it would be easier to go to Europe from Pakistan via Turkey.
Prashanth has sent a video message to his family through official channels expressing hope that he will be back with the family soon. Cyberabad police commissioner VC Sajjannar also assured Babu Rao that his son will be deported to India by Pakistani authorities soon.
Prashanth’s family was happy to hear for the first time from him since April 11, 2017 but worried about his future. “We are happy that he is alive. We will do our best and seek the help from government officials to bring back our son safely as we are sure he was innocent,” Babu Rao told the media appealing to Pakistani government to send him back safely.
