Amritsar: Mandeep Singh, who served the country for about 17 years in the Indian Army, gave his entire life savings of Rs 40 lakh to agents. Not only this, he took a loan of Rs 14 lakh. Mandeep hoped that his dreams would come true after reaching the USA, but there was something else in his destiny. However, after staying for a few months in the US, he was deported to India in a US military plane.
Mandeep had left Amritsar in Punjab for the US on August 13, 2024. Mandeep, a resident of Palm Garden on Batala Road here has reached India on the third flight that arrived in India on Sunday after being deported from the US.
Mandeep Singh narrated his ordeal while speaking to reporters. "I flew from Amritsar to Delhi on 13 August 2024. Then from Delhi, I took a flight to Mumbai, from Mumbai, my flight was to Rabia and then to Kenya, then from Kenya to Dakar. Then after that, there was a flight from Dakar to Amsterdam and then I went to Suriname. From there, I went to the United States by train and other modes of transport."
"I travelled from Suriname to Guam, after Guam to Bolivia, from Bolivia to Peru, after Peru to Brazil, from Brazil to Aqua Dore, then to Colombia and then to the jungles of Panama. During this journey, I spent two and a half to three hours in the sea and it reminded us of God."
According to Mandeep, while he was travelling in the jungles of Panama, he saw a lot of crocodiles. "There was also a time when I felt that either I would not find a route further, or we would have to turn back," he added.
Mandeep Singh claimed that during his travel, he lived on Maggi for 70 days and raw rotis. "If I would not have eaten anything, I wouldn't have been able to survive," he said.
He also said that he travelled through roads, in which 10-15 people were in one vehicle. "During this time, one is even afraid to eat, because one does not know whether he or she will be allowed to go to the toilet or bathroom or not," he said.
Mandeep recalled that he used a bottle to urinate while he was travelling in a car. "It took 13 days to cross the Panama jungle, after which we reached a camp and spent the night there. I ate biscuits and raw bread at the camp. The treatment meted out to youths when they are searched by the US military after entering the US is extremely saddening," he claimed.
"They had our bags emptied, stripped down to the soles of our shoes. The people from the Sikh community were given worse treatment. I was a 'Gursikh', there were other 'Amritdhari' youths too, whose belongings were searched and thrown away. Our 'dumales', turbans and 'pernas' were also thrown in the dustbin. We were boarded by the US military with our bare heads tied up and put on a plane for the return journey," he alleged.
"We were not even given any clothes to cover our heads. We were given apples, chips and fruit to eat. When we had to go to the bathroom, we would open one hand," he said.
According to Mandeep, after retiring from the Army, he received around Rs 35 lakh. He then sold the rest of his wife's jewellery, gave a total of Rs 40 lakh to the agent and went to the US. He said that he had also given signed cheques of Rs 14 lakh to the agent.
"But now the agent says that he will sit down and talk to me. If there is a talk, then fine, otherwise I will also publish the name of the agent and take action against him," he added.
Mandeep Singh appealed to the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) to take strict action against those, who are misbehaving with Gursikhs.
