Telangana NRI Jailed in UAE Over Unpaid Telephone Bill

Dubai: The easy way to buy the latest smartphones with post-paid packages from telecom companies is a boon for many new arrivals from Telangana in the Gulf countries, but it can also be a risk as they get bogged down in debt and legal troubles. Some of these youths are unaware of the documents they are signing and the implications of a small amount. The case of Sungari Sridhar from Jagdiyal district, who got a SIM card while working as a labourer in the UAE, illustrates the modus operandi.

Sridhar had once got a SIM card in Dubai, but he never used it. He believed that since he did not use the SIM card, he would not be charged any fees. Sridhar was recently arrested at Sharjah airport on a flight to Hyderabad for a holiday.

Immigration officials handed him over to local police, who told him that he had to pay a local telecom company 12,800 dirhams, equivalent to Rs 2.95 lakh, for the smartphone. He was told that he had also bought the latest model smartphone with a post-paid SIM.

Sridhar claimed that he was unaware of any such purchase and blamed a middleman who pretended to help him get the SIM card. He is currently in jail.

A large number of men from Telangana who have fallen prey to such fraudulent schemes to buy smartphones on installment basis from telecom companies face travel bans and legal consequences for wilful default.

Telecom companies, banks and other lenders approach the courts with evidence of non-payment. Similar cases have been reported in Kuwait and elsewhere in the region.

Local laws in the Gulf region allow debtors to be imprisoned for failing to pay as per court orders.