Swiss industrialist Pankaj Oswal has filed an appeal with the United Nations over the alleged unlawful detention of his 26-year-old daughter, Vasundhara Oswal, in Uganda.
Vasundhara was allegedly abducted by 20-odd armed people who did not show their identities nor a warrant while she was in Oswal’s ENA plant in Uganda. Arrested on 1 October over a missing person case, an urgent appeal was filed with the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention earlier this week.
In a series of posts on her Instagram account, Vasundhara documented what she described as her “illegal detention.” The harrowing pictures posted by her displayed a blood-and-feces-smeared toilet. She said she was confined to a room full of shoes for over 90 continuous hours and was not allowed to bathe or change her clothes for almost five days. She reportedly was denied access to clean water and adequate food, only a small bench for sleep, and forced to march in some sort of suspect parade.
Reports from EU Reporter also said Vasundhara wasn’t given vegetarian food or access to her family and legal counsel.
Her brother described her as a “workaholic” who took a US$ 110 million ENA plant in Luwero, Uganda, from “a small tent on bare land in 2021.” He said her detention was because of corporate envy of a 68-year-old man and that, too, out of extortion of money from the Oswal family and defaming her character.
Despite a court granting Vasundhara’s release, the police detained her, according to her brother, and transferred her to another court, which laid murder charges against her.
The WGAD comprises international experts in human rights appointed by the Human Rights Council to investigate abuses of police power and intervene with responsible governments.
Vasundhara’s mother, Radhika Oswal, in an emotional plea to the Ugandan government, had said, “My young daughter has been thrown into a foreign jail. She has been divested of her basic human rights and her dignity. Vasundhara is an innocent bystander. All I want is her safety.”
Conversely, The Monitor reported that Vasundhara was taken to prison along with the company’s lawyer over charges of kidnapping a chef named Mukesh Kumar Menaria, who had worked for their family for seven years, with intent to kill.
