Billionaire Pankaj Oswal and his wife have locked themselves in a “secret location” as they work to free their daughter from the Ugandan prison, reported Hindustan Times. Their daughter, Vasundhara Oswal, has been detained for over three weeks after being accused of kidnapping and murdering a person, who is alive and well in Tanzania, her family said.
The Indian-origin billionaire feels “immensely guilty” about sending his daughter to Uganda to oversee the family business plant, Riddhi Oswal told HT. Vasundhara was arrested by armed police in Uganda on October 1 in connection to a missing person investigation. Her family has claimed she was detained without a warrant and made to live in adverse conditions without access to basic facilities illegally.
Vasundhara has been working in Uganda for three years, developing East Africa’s first grain-based Extra-Neutral Alcohol (ENA) production facility as part of the Oswal Group. On October 1, she was visiting the factory, from where she was taken away for questioning.
“My parents’ hands are tied because they can’t even go to Uganda without facing immediate arrest by the highly corrupt officials there,” Riddhi Oswal, her younger sister told HT in an interview.
“As we’ve come to learn, the police in Uganda have too much power and can arrest people on a whim, even without warrants or proper court procedures,” she explained.
She added that her parents won’t be able to fight for her sister if her parents get arrested too. Vasundhara has been denied any contact with her family and is being treated like a convicted criminal, she said.
Her parents, Pankaj and Radhika Oswal have locked themselves in a “secret location” and have cut any contact with the outside world. They are only talking to people who working to help Vasundhara, while Ridi is attending to all family and business matters.
“My parents have essentially locked themselves in a secret location, devoting all their time to fighting for my sister’s release. They barely eat more than one meal a day and are surviving on the hope and faith that they can get their daughter free,” Riddhi told HT. “They feel responsible for her situation.”
(With inputs from agencies)