Four Indian women forced to work as bar dancers in Dubai rescued
Dubai: Four Indian women who were tricked into working as bar dancers flew back to home on Friday after being rescued by Dubai Police following a tip-off from the Indian consulate.
The four women, from Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, were deluded into believing that they will be working for an event management company. However, when they reached Dubai, their employer locked them in a room and were then forced to work in a dance bar and solicit customers, Consul General of India to Dubai, Vipul, told Gulf News.
According to reports, one of the women managed to send an SOS to her family back home via WhatsApp.
As soon as the message was brought to the attention of Vellamvelly Muraleedharan, India's Minister of State for External Affairs, he alerted the consulate, which then informed Dubai Police.
Vipul said he was thankful to Dubai Police for their swift response to rescue the four women, all in their twenties.
After being rescued the women were taken to our shelter. Today we put them in a plane bound for Kozhikode, he was quoted as saying by the daily.
The Consul General said he will write to the Tamil Nadu government, seeking firm action against the agent who sent the women to Dubai.
The Indian mission in Dubai has repeatedly urged jobseekers to check their visa status with the Pravasi Bhartaiya Sahayta Kendra (PBSK) earlier known as Indian Workers' Resource Centre.
Jobseekers can also verify their visa status on the Amer website before travelling to the UAE.
The case follows a similar incident last year when another group of women were rescued from a dance bar by Dubai Police at the behest of the Indian consulate. Among them was a 21-year-old from Hyderabad who was lured to Dubai on the pretext that she would be getting a job in a jewellery store only to end up working in a dance bar.
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West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee moves SC against SIR
New Delhi (PTI): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in the state, sources said on Sunday.
The petition names the Election Commission (EC) and the chief electoral officer of West Bengal as respondents. It was filed before the apex court on January 28, the sources said.
Banerjee arrived in Delhi on Sunday. She is scheduled to meet Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar at 4 pm on Monday to discuss the ongoing SIR exercise in West Bengal. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo would be accompanied by a delegation of party leaders.
She is also likely to meet party MPs in the Parliament House on Monday.
Talking to reporters at the Kolkata airport before leaving for the national capital, Banerjee claimed that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre is resorting to the SIR exercise because it is certain of its imminent defeat in the West Bengal Assembly polls, due in a few months, and said the saffron party should contest the election politically and democratically.
The West Bengal chief minister has written several letters to the CEC, raising concerns over the conduct of the exercise.
In her most recent letter to the CEC on January 31, she alleged that the methodology and approach of the exercise went beyond the provisions of the Representation of the People Act and the relevant rules, causing "immense inconvenience and agony" to citizens.
Earlier, TMC leaders, including Rajya Sabha MPs Derek O'Brien and Dola Sen, had moved the apex court, challenging certain aspects of how the SIR is being carried out in West Bengal.
