Mangaluru, Aug 13: The city police have arrested a sub-agent who was instrumental in sending Jacintha Mendonca, a home nurse from Karkala in Udupi to Saudi Arabia, after promising her a job in Qatar.
James D'Mello, 30, a resident of Kulashekar, was arrested on Saturday based on a complaint by Jacintha's son Vinroy Mendonca, and was remanded in judicial custody.
Efforts are on to nab the main agent, who lives in Mumbai. Jacintha, 46, from Karkala in Udupi district, was promised a job in Qatar for a salary equivalent to Rs 25,000. In June 2016, she left Mangaluru, but eventually landed in Saudi Arabia. The family had been receiving money regularly. However, in November, Jacintha called her children to say she was being held captive under inhuman conditions by her employer in Saudi Arabia.
Police said they had interrogated James in June, when external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj had in a tweet directed the Indian ambassador in Saudi Arabia to bail out Jacintha. James had promised that he would pressure his main agent, Shabha Khan of Mumbai, to bring Jacintha back to India by the second week of July, but did not keep his word.
During interrogation, James told police that the main agent had taken Rs 5 lakh from the 'kafil' (Saudi employer) and drawn up an agreement for two years. He later paid James Rs 25,000 for his job. However, the kafil is not allowing Jacintha to return until the agreement expires. "We will arrest the main agent soon," police said.
Jacintha left from Mumbai to Qatar on June 19, 2016, but landed in Yanbhu, Saudi Arabia. There, she had to look after her Saudi employer's 10 children from three wives, and was required to work for over 16 hours a day. In the process, her health deteriorated and her pleas of inability to complete work fell on deaf ears.
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