IL&FS staffers stay captive in Ethiopia as bank raises hurdle

After spending 50 days in captivity, Chaitanya Hari, an engineer with IL&FS Transportation Network Ltd (ITNL) in Ethiopia, was hoping to be released on Tuesday to be home in time for his sister’s wedding next week.

What had raised expectations for Hari and his three colleagues was Exim Bank’s move to lift the freeze on ITNL’s bank account. But Ethiopian Commercial Bank executives have refused to lift the freeze, further delaying the departure of the employees who are now left with no money to even buy food and are living without electricity as their employer is refusing to transfer any funds.

Initially, Sukhvinder Singh, Bishnu Nagaraju, Khurram Imam and Hari were held hostage in a camp as the local workers demanded ITNL clear their dues. When this was done, they demanded severance pay for 10 months, which has now been reduced to four months. That puts the bill at less than $200,000, which IL&FS has failed to pay up for over a month now.



Around 450 km away in Addis Ababa, three other ITNL employees have spent a few weeks in jail as the bankrupt IL&FS group has refused to clear tax dues of around $1.5 million. While two of the arrested employees are now out of the legal tangle, their passports have been taken away. A third, Chandra Sekhar, is out on bail and faces a travel ban, which will not allow him to return to India.

IL&FS employees in Ethiopia as well as India put a part of the blame on the government and alleged that the Indian embassy was completely ineffective.Sources said even on Tuesday, local authorities refused to come to their rescue unless IL&FS cleared the dues to employees.

“It’s only a matter of Rs 1 crore but the company has refused help to get the employees out,” said an ITNL employee who managed to return to India.

IL&FS Group and its various subsidiaries, including ITNL, are facing a liquidity crisis and have defaulted on various debt payments. IL&FS spokesperson refused to comment on the issue.

IL&FS employees in Ethiopia and India put a part of the blame on the government and alleged that the Indian embassy was completely ineffective.