Mumbai trader Shyamsunder Agrawal is now trapped all alone in China, left to fight it out against powers far bigger than him.
Mr Agrawal was taken hostage along with Hyderabad resident Deepak Raheja eight months ago. He was freed after the Indian government intervened, and since then has been trying to return home.
“Mr Raheja’s father passed away last month, and he was granted permission to go to India for a month. He left five days ago, and I have been alone since. I am not even sure if he’ll come back, despite the one-month limit. I spoke to some lawyers here, and they said as it is a civil case, nobody will really bother chasing him if he does not honour the deadline,” Mr Agrawal told this newspaper from Beijing.
Mr Agrawal has run out of money, and is dependent on the mercy of some people. “I was finally thrown out of the hotel where I was staying last week, as the owner got fed up of letting me stay for free. I now sleep on the streets. An Indian restaurateur takes pity on me and gives me meals. Apart from him and some members of an Indian association here, I have no friends,” he said.
Back home, Mr Agarwal’s wife Jyoti is also in bad shape. With no money, she cannot get treated for her heart condition, and her children can’t go to school as their fees have not been paid.
In a desperate email to the President’s office last week, she wrote: “It took a death in the family for Mr Raheja to return home. If it is my death that will bring my husband home, I shall happily kill myself.”