Naushad Alam. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, Oct. 18: Twenty three-year-old Naushad Alam, a resident of Goreakothi in Siwan, around 140km north-west of Patna, wept bitterly today while talking about his two younger brothers who were not able to complete their education.

Alam, who spent more than a year languishing in a jail in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia allegedly for staging a protest, returned home on July 16 this year hoping to reboot his life yet again. The state government did not disappoint him either with chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi today announcing a sum of Rs 1 lakh each for his two brothers to complete their education while presenting him with a cheque of Rs 10,000.

“I was working fine as an electrician at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai as an electrician when a person lured me to work in Saudi Arabia promising me a hefty salary. I left for Saudi Arabia in August 2011 and my elder brother Haroon, who is an electrician too, joined me next year. We both were working at Nesma and Partners Company Limited as electricians. Tragedy stuck in June 2013 when my brother died on the spot after receiving an electric shock at workplace. The company refused to release his body owing to which I and some of my co-workers staged a protest shouting inquilab zindabad slogans. The company did not react immediately but just after a month, I was suddenly arrested and sent to jail. They (authorities) said I would have to be in prison for two months but had to languish for a year and 15 days amid torture. Somehow, my family here contacted the Bihar government and JDU MP Ali Anwar helped a lot to get me released,” Alam said.

Manjhi, while listening to their harrowing tales, said the state government would soon start a registration process of those working in the West Asia nations at Bihar Niwas, the official guesthouse of the state, in Delhi.