Principal Secretary, Labour and Department of Information and Public Relations, P. Manivannan has contacted the Indian Embassy at Riyadh in Saudi Arabia with regard to the case of Harish Bangera who has been arrested in Saudi Arabia for allegedly posting derogatory posts about the Saudi royal family on Facebook.
Mr. Bangera, a resident of Beejady village near Kundapur in Udupi district, works as an air-conditioner technician in a company in Saudi Arabia.
A press release issued from the Department of Information and Public Relations here on Tuesday said that Mr. Manivannan has already received information about the case from the Embassy in Riyadh. He has urged the Embassy officers to make efforts to get Mr. Bangera released as soon as possible. The Embassy officers had informed him that the case had to be resolved legally, and that though arrested, Mr. Bangera was safe.
Mr. Manivannan had contacted Sumana Bangera, Mr. Bangera’s wife, and informed her about the case. He promised her that the State government would take all possible steps to secure her husband’s release.
Meanwhile, the staff of the Department of Information and Public Relations met Ms. Sumana Bangera at Beejady on Tuesday and informed her about the steps taken to secure Mr. Bangera’s release. Ms. Bangera said that the company in which Mr. Bangera worked in Saudi Arabia had contacted her once. Later, the Indian Embassy informed her that it had had started collecting information about Mr. Bangera from the Saudi Arabian Police. She expressed the desire to talk to Mr. Bangera once over the telephone.
Srinivas Bangera, Mr. Bangera’s relative, said that Mr. Bangera has been working in Saudi Arabia for the last six years. He last visited Beejady in January 2018. After getting information about her husband’s arrest, Ms. Sumana Bangera registered a complaint with the CEN police station in Udupi a couple of days ago (stating that it was a fake Facebook account). She had also brought the matter to the notice of Human Rights Protection Foundation, he said.
