Punjab trucker gets death sentence in Saudi drug case, family seeks his release

His family maintained that he had no connection with drugs or any other illegal activity and had unknowingly carried the packet, without knowing what it contained.

In Short

• Baljinder Singh imprisoned in Saudi Arabia for nearly three years
• Family claims he carried narcotics, thinking it was medicine
• Family appeals to authorities to help release him from Saudi jail

The family of a Punjab man sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia in a drug trafficking case has appealed to the Punjab government and the Centre to intervene and secure his release.

Baljinder Singh, a resident of Sujanpur in Pathankot district, has been imprisoned in Saudi Arabia for nearly three years after narcotics were found in a medicine packet he was carrying across the Dubai-Saudi Arabia border.

According to his family, Baljinder worked as a truck driver in Dubai for nearly 10 years and regularly transported goods to Saudi Arabia.

Before one such journey, a person working with him in Dubai allegedly asked him to carry a packet of medicines for an elderly patient in Saudi Arabia.

The family said Baljinder agreed without knowing what the packet contained. During a scan of his truck at the border, authorities found narcotics inside the packet and arrested him.

A Saudi court subsequently convicted Baljinder in the drug-trafficking case and sentenced him to death. However, his family maintained that he had no connection with drugs or any other illegal activity and had unknowingly carried the packet.

Baljinder’s family has sought urgent legal and diplomatic intervention to prevent his execution and secure his release.

- Ends
(With inputs from Pavan Singh)