The fallout of U.S.-backed Gulf Cooperation Council’s economic embargo on Qatar is taking a toll on Indian investors in that country with over 200 people, mostly Keralities, incarcerated in jails for economic offences.
Another 2,000 debt-ridden Indian entrepreneurs are leading a fugitive life without being able to return to their homeland.
“Some of the economic offences are clear violations of the agreement between India and Qatar on the reciprocal promotion and protection of investments signed in April 1999,” Prajeesh Thiruthiyil, president of the Indian-Qatar Entrepreneurs Action Council, which has taken up the issue with the Ministry of External Affairs, told The Hindu .
He says that about 150 prisoners are from Malabar and of the remaining, the majority are from Tamil Nadu.
As per the agreement, any Indian can start business with a Qatari partnership on a 49:51 share basis. “'However, that share holding pattern is only on paper as investments are solely funded by the Indians,” he adds.
Mr. Thiruthiyil points out that the global financial crisis coupled by the economic blockade on Qatar resulted in many business of Indians going awry in the last few years.
“A restaurant owner from Kozhikode had to down shutters. The default in payment by a Nadapuram native running a transport company has landed him in jail and all his 60 vehicles confiscated and sold off. Similar was the case with a supermarket owner,” he says.
Violation of pact
At the same time, council general convener M.K. Janardhanan says the imprisonment of Indians without any trial violates the spirit of bilateral agreement.
All disputes have to go through various procedures such as mutual negotiations, settlement at a tribunal where the chairman will be a national from a third country, settlement by a court in Kuwait and finally arbitration at the Hague, the Netherlands.
Incidentally, many Indian entrepreneurs take up business after availing themselves of loans from banks. A default in payment even for a month will end up in imprisonment even as his capital remains intact outside or sold off by the Qatari sponsor. “Thus the defaulter never gets a chance to repay his loan while the joint venture collapses,” says Mr. Janardhanan, whose son is in jail for the last five years.
One commits suicide
The situation is grave with one debt-ridden businessman taking his life while nine other who are a jail resorting to hunger protest. “The Indian Embassy has its own limitations as economic offences such as cheque bounce cases are considered non-bailable crimes,” Mr. Thiruthiyil says. The crisis is also having a deep social impact back home as well, resulting in unreported suicides and divorce cases.
“Those in jail are unable to visit their ailing parents. The only way out is for the Centre to intervene and get them released,” he adds.
