A disabled Punjabi youth was coerced to join the Russian army after being allegedly tricked by travel agents.

Mandeep Kumar from Goraya, Jalandhar was promised by a travel agent to be sent to Italy but was tricked to Moscow, where he was forced to join the Russian army, Indian Express reported.

“My brother has a congenital limb (left leg) defect. Mandeep and his friends were misled into travelling to Italy via Armenia, but they ended up in Russia instead. They were exploited and threatened by agents demanding more money,” the report quoted Jagdeep Kumar, brother of the victim.

In his last interaction with Mandeep, his family said that he was in army uniform and pleaded to be rescued.

“It was extremely distressing for the family when we heard reports that Mandeep and other young Punjabi boys were forcibly recruited into the Russian army for deployment in war-torn Ukraine,” Jagdeep Kumar told the Indian Express.

The report noted that the family sought help from the Centre. They approached Balbir Singh Seechewal, a Rajya Sabha member, who then raised the issue with the Ministry of External Affairs for quick action to ensure the secure return of Balbir and others stuck in a similar situation.

Seechewal was quoted in the report saying, “This is very disturbing when innocent youths are lured by unscrupulous agents. We must caution our youth against falling prey to such traps.”

This is not the first case of youths getting trapped to work for the Russian Army.Several such cases have been reported in different parts of the country. In March, a Hyderabad youth was killed in the Russia-Ukraine war. He was a victim of a job scam, where he was promised a job of a helper but was later forced to join the Russian army and was deployed to the Ukraine border

Hamil Mangukiya, originally from Surat, applied for a job in Russia via an online advertisement and travelled from Chennai to Moscow. He was hired as an assistant in the Russian Army. Mangukiya lost his life in an airstrike conducted by Ukraine on February 21 in the Donetsk region near the Russia-Ukraine border.

(With inputs from agencies)