Husband in Russian detention, Chennai woman appeals for help
Yamini claims Russian officials detained and tortured him after mistaking him for a Ukrainian sympathiser; he had pursued medicine in Ukraine before the Russian invasion in 2022
Yamini and Jegatheeswaran
CHENNAI: A 28-year-old woman from Nanganallur has appealed to the Union and State governments for their urgent intervention to rescue her husband Jegatheeswaran, who she claims has been illegally detained and tortured by Russian authorities after being mistaken for a Ukrainian sympathiser.
Yamini said Jegatheeswaran, a native of Thiruvalluvar district, has been unlawfully detained in Russia for over two months.
According to her, he pursued medicine in Ukraine, before the Russian invasion began in 2022. After returning to India, he got married and settled in Chennai. The couple has a young daughter.
In September 2024, he travelled to Russia with his friend Sekar. Upon arrival at Sochi airport, Russian security officials allegedly detained both men after learning Jegatheeswaran had studied in Ukraine. Sekar was released after 10 days, said Yamini, but Jegatheeswaran was held for 43 days and released thereafter, only to be re-arrested at the same airport by the same immigration officer, when he was about to catch a flight to India.
Yamini alleged that Russian authorities accused her husband of disrespecting officials and assaulted him during interrogation. “They beat him severely, denied him food and water,” she said.
Quoting what officials told her husband, she added: “They told him either join the Russian army, as he knows the language, or go to jail for five years.”
She further claimed that even after hiring a lawyer in Russia, authorities threatened to open a criminal case against him. “They said he would not be given food and kept warning him. One day he collapsed after his sugar levels dropped dangerously low. They said he slipped into a coma,” she said.
Yamini alleged that the Indian embassy in Russia has not responded properly to her repeated pleas. For the past two months, she has been running between government offices and the Chennai District Collectorate seeking help, she said.
“My husband is suffering without food or medical care. They are threatening to arrest him again next week. Please, I beg Prime Minister Narendra Modi, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Chief Minister MK Stalin, to save my husband and bring him back safely,” she appealed.
