Indian expat gets over USD 130,000 fine waiver; to return home after 14 yrs

Dubai: An Indian expat in the UAE will return home after 14 years after he got a fine waiver of over Dh 511,200 (USD 139,177), according to a media report.

Baskari Raghavlu, who hails from Andhra Pradesh, got help from lawyer and social worker Sheela Thomas, who also bought a ticket for him to fly back home, the Gulf News reported on Friday. "He was struggling for accommodation.

He was living off the generosity of some other blue-collar workers. He just wanted to return home and see his daughter for the first time in his life. I then took up his case," Thomas was quoted as saying in the report.

Thomas said Raghavlu's overstay fines have been cleared and he is set to fly home. Raghavlu, 41, came to the UAE in 2006 and was injured in a road accident while travelling in his company vehicle. He tried to get compensation from the company where he worked through a lawyer who took his passport, the report said. Raghavlu said he did some odd jobs to sustain himself and his family back home.

During one of the amnesty programmes by the UAE government, he even managed to secure an outpass to leave the country but did not have money for his flight ticket, it said.