Missing family of UAE victim comes in contact

It was September 2008 when Mohan Bahadur Basnet and his family had last spoken to their only son who was working in the UAE. But suddenly the son stopped calling home. Days and months passed and still there was no word from him. Worry and fear gripped them, but still they believed that their son Ganesh Bahadur Basnet would return home one day and settle the Rs 90,000 loan the family had borrowed to send him to the Gulf country. 

 

"How could I lose hope when renowned astrologers had told me that my son was alive and would return home," Basnet, 56, burst into tears before he collapsed upon learning about the death of his son at the consular section of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) at Tripureshwar, Sunday afternoon. Seated in a sofa together in the office, the paraplegic father lost consciousness repeatedly while the victim´s mother Ambika, 70, wept uncontrollably. 

 

The elderly parents, who pinned great hope on Ganesh, were unaware that their son was killed by a fellow Nepali Durga Bahadur Sunar of Chitre VDC-5, Parbat district in January 2009 in Sharjah, UAE. The illiterate family, who earns a living by selling roasted maize at Swayambhu, learned about the death when the Consular Section of the ministry called them to discuss whether they would like to pardon their son´s murderer Sunar.

 

Sunar, who was convicted and is awaiting execution in September in Sharjah prison, can be saved if the victim´s family pardons him. Sunar and late Basnet were working at Al Shirawi Equipment Company in Sharjah at the time of the murder. 

 

The MoFA had started a search to trace the Basnet family on the basis of the address -- Hansponsa VDC-2, Sunsari -- mentioned in the victim´s passport. But the Sunsari District Administration Office had been unable to trace the Basnet family until they made announcement using a loudspeaker at Hansponsa VDC Saturday. This came a day after Republica and its sister publication Nagarik ran a story on the missing family of the victim in their Friday editions.

 

Bhakta Khadka, who is a relative to the victim family, said they came to know about Ganesh´s death through newspapers. "We did not know about the death. During his last contact with the family in September 2008, he [Ganesh] had told us that he would come home in February 2009," he said.

 

The victim´s father, who originally hails from Dundbhanhyang VDC in Sindhuli, had acquired citizenship certificate from Sunsari district as he was working at an agricultural farm in Tarahara back in the early 1980s. "Ganesh too, before flying to UAE, had acquired citizenship and passport from Sunsari district in January 2004 although the family has been living in Dallu, Kathmandu for the past 22 years," Khadka further said.

 

Mohan´s mother Ambika recalled that her son had last called in September 2008. "He had told me that it had been 10 days since he left work in the original company in the UAE. He had told me that police would arrest him and send back to Nepal," the wailing mother said.

 

With Mohan gone, the burden of marrying off the youngest daugther, who is dwarf and epileptic, has fallen on the shoulders of the paraplegic father and disabled mother. "Our son is dead. How will I payback the Rs 90,000 loan and huge interest," the victim´s father choked up as he regained consciousness.

 

Chief of the Consular Section Dilip Paudel said the MoFA is trying to learn through diplomatic channel if Mohan´s body has already been cremated. "We will try to bring the body back if it is still there. Since both the families are from impoverished backgrounds, it would be nice if someone generous helped them," said Paudel.