I
t was 4 am when this happened at our home which we used to stay while visiting the famous Mahadev area of Kurukshetra.
At that time, my good friend Vishu Sharma’s German roommate and neighbor called me on his (Vishu’s) cellphone—I know he has done it because I heard it myself as I picked up the call – but was confused about why I would receive a call during midnight hours from him at 4 am!
I remember feeling quite sleepy then, trying hard to understand what was going on over there until my dear friend Gaurav’s mobile got untraceable! We were filled with shock, despair, and pain for some time and eventually received confirmation for this tragedy due to his tattoo!
It all started when the boy was reported to have been summoned by 3 unidentified persons at ward number 31 of Kurkusheta at 12am Monday night, after which he participated in a fight resulting in getting stabbed to death.
Vishu Sharma was taken to the nearest hospital located in Frankfurt City by his roommate Gaurav. Neither any of the family members nor any other member of the family was aware of such an incident taking place. Moreover, no one could ever imagine that there would be an argument or threat coming from anyone’s side.
Now comes the part that makes us shiver with fear and wonder how far we can trust our police department in Germany. According to him, “motive behind killing him & identity of perpetrators" are yet to be known. It will certainly turn out to be another agony to the already agonizing situation of the family members residing miles away from their precious son/brother/male member…
In my conversations with people from different states across India, I’ve met several who share Vishu’s story—men and women who went on to make a better life for themselves by migrating abroad. In this case, Vishu’s journey began in November 2022, when he first travelled to Portugal, made possible because his family sold off a piece of land valued at Rs 20 lakh.
After spending time in Portugal, Vishu moved to France and spent six months training in the army there before being deployed in the French army for a year. He then took up work in delivery services in Germany and has now built a team around him.
What makes this case unique, though, is that Vishu arrived in Portugal as part of an irregular migration route. He had even reached the point of becoming a citizen of Portugal, but he could never make it happen.
Adding further complication to an already grim situation, what made things worse for us was the knowledge that it really was him, as verified by the family. There wasn’t an immediately available means of positively identifying the deceased individual in some formal manner. However, a member of the family visited the Frankfurt hospital, where it was confirmed through tattoos—a name on both arms (and also on the neck).
For those who need additional incentive to read about this tragedy, we offer you the notion that our own families will someday come to rely upon such markings as a means to definitively confirm the loss of someone they love. Tragic indeed.
However, what makes this story more interesting than others is the most tragic story of Vishu’s sister. According to Vishu’s sister, Noni, who spoke with the media reporters, “He used to promise to give me a golden ring on the occasion of raksha bandhan. In fact, I had contacted him just a few days back for helping me out in designing of my ring, when I send rakhi to him."
The long-awaited plan of his came true now, but he didn’t follow it according to the schedule. He decided to come back early, i.e., at 4am on the very day (the day of Diwali) for celebrating his return and lightening up our lives.
The family have tried arranging the dead body of Vishu to be shipped back home as well, however there are problems here too — the price factor. According to an uncle of the family (Nitin Bhardwaj Lali, a former ward councilor and BJP functionary aka Mandal Shakti Pramukh), the agency which takes care of such repatriations has demanded 12 lakh rupees in exchange for transporting the dead body back to his homeland.
Twenty million rupees were spent by the family to sell some land and ship off their kid abroad… and then this? Paying 12 lakhs more to get back the boy’s corpse? Uncle Nitin seems frustrated. He says he’s approached the central government and even the Chief Minister of Haryana, Nayab Singh Saini, hoping they’ll intervene.
But he was not alone—his demise is just another chapter in a darkly recurring story. In recent years we have witnessed the saga play out time and again in the Indian state of Haryana (and elsewhere) as hundreds upon hundreds of young men with funds available after selling off family-owned land and taking on loans set their sights on Portugal and various European Union member countries for employment opportunities and a shot at Western Europe’s prestigious citizenship.
Most go through without issue. But sporadically headlines emerge detailing cases where individuals did not return to their home countries when they failed to complete their missions—either because they got killed in encounters or accidents or simply due to widespread violence in some of these countries. Success stories abound among those whose families celebrated when one of their sons obtained citizenship as an NRI. Others, however, are currently locked up in bitter negotiations with repatriation agencies regarding what such bodies might cost their families.
We need only look at the fate of Vishu — and others like him — before even broaching this topic amongst Indian states as to the extent if any of protections afforded to these thousands of young men opting to travel along irregular routes outside India.
