A Goan company has submitted a petition to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday, during latter’s Goa visit, seeking intervention at the highest level in Government of India for taking up the matter with the Iranian government to ensure speedy return of two of their Indian employees stuck in Iran since December 2013.
The memo submitted by Mr. Atul Pai Kane, Managing Director of Power Engineering (India) Pvt. Ltd.(PEIPL), said that the two were suffering in Iran due to completely false and an unjust case initiated by Iranian company M/s Vazhar Jahan instead of seeking recourse to arbitration as provided in supply agreement. Mr. Kane told The Hindu on Monday that the family members of the duo, Mohammed Hussain Khan and Sanket Pandya had already filed a writ petition in Delhi High Court making Government of India and PEIPL as parties in this regard, with the next hearing being posted for sometime in July.
Mr. Kane, a former president of CII, Goa said that his company had supplied some transformers to the company in Iran and the two company officials had gone there to complete that job. They were accused of theft by a customer due to a techno commercial dispute.
“The Indian Embassy is sure that there is no valid ground for a case”, he said.
The company officials, Ministry of External Affairs and authorities in Tehran were in constant touch with all concerned over the issue, he said.
Mr. Kane said that they have engaged the best of law firms through their dealers in Iran who have given them the latest information that the amount of the case should be reduced soon when they can then pay the security and get the duo out of there.
However the Iranian side accused the duo of breach of trust and theft.
