In a shocking incident, a diabetic Indian diplomat collapsed in a court in Yiwu city near Shanghai when he was denied permission to leave the court for a food break till the end of the proceedings.
India on Monday summoned Deputy Chief of Chinese Mission in New Delhi, Zhang Yue, and lodged a strong protest over the incident. New Delhi has also registered similar protests with the Chinese authorities in Beijing and Shanghai.
Forty-six year-old S Balachandran was later rushed to hospital in an ambulance. His condition is now stable. The diplomat from the consulate in Shanghai had gone to the court in connection with a case related to kidnapping of two Indian traders.
The two Indians had been held hostage by the local traders for two weeks after the owner of their company, Euro Global Trading, fled without paying the dues of local suppliers. The owner was believed to be a Yemeni or a Pakistani national.
Sources said officials of the Ministry of external Zhang Yue told Zhang this was not the way to treat a diplomat, who was a diabetic and required regular intake of food.
“This seems to be a civic-commercial dispute. We would do our best to handle this properly,” Zhang said emerging from the External Affairs Ministry.
“I just listened to the officials from the MEA about what has happened. We are trying to find out what had happened actually,” he said. Similar protests were lodged by the Indian Consulate General with local authorities in Shanghai and by the Indian Embassy with the Foreign Ministry in Beijing, sources said.
Riva Ganguly Das, India’s Consul General in Shanghai told PTI earlier that Balachandran fainted when he was “manhandled” while attempting to get the release of Deepak Raheja and Shyamsunder Agrawal.
Balachandran tried to negotiate for the release of the two Indians for over five hours at a court. The incident took place on December 31 in the court and in the presence of police and the judge.
Reports said a high drama unfolded as the crowd prevented the two from going along with him demanding that they pay millions of Yuan owed to them for commodities purchased from them. They later pounced on them and snatched the two from Balachandran who fainted afterwards.
Balachandran was rushed to the local hospital in a semi-conscious state by local officials and some Indian traders based in Yiwu. His condition was better and he is currently undergoing various tests, Das said.
Though the court allowed Deepak and Shayamsundar free to go, they remained in police custody fearing attack by the crowd. The Consulate has appointed a lawyer to secure their release.
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