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

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.