A 33-year-old man going to the US by 'dunki' route after paying Rs 36 lakh died on the way due to cardiac arrest. The man, identified as Gurpreet Singh was from Ajnala, Punjab's NRI Affairs Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal said as he urged people to not go to any country illegally.
"If you have collected so much money by taking loans then start a business here in Punjab, my government will fully help you," the minister said.
"The man was trying to go to America through different countries. Their parents were also upset. They demand that they should be given his dead bodies. We have already started a process from our department in Punjab to get the dead body. But I request all the Punjab's parents and all the young people to not go anywhere through illegal way," the Punjab minister said.
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Gurpreet's brother, Tara Singh, said he had the 'American dream' for which he left three months back.
"He talked to a Chandigarh agent Balwinder Singh. He made a deal worth Rs 16.5 lakhs. He had sent my brother to Guyana. After that, there was a Pakistani agent named Mohammed. We found out that he was Pakistani only after his death. He spoke to him himself. He took the road to Colombia through the jungle of Panama. He had already taken the payment of 18-20 lakhs from the Pakistani Agency," Tara Singh told ANI.
The Pakistani agent allegedly promised to take Gurpreet to the US by air but didn't.
"Instead, he took him by foot. He said they would leave in the jungle in about 25 hours. In Guatemala, they met with other people who were staying at the hotel. One of them called us and told us that he was dying. He sat in the car and said that he was having a breathing problem. In 5-7 minutes he said that he was attacked and he died," Tara Singh added.
The incident comes days after 104 Indian migrants, including 30 from Punjab, were deported from the US.