Swiss industrialist Pankaj Oswal, who was born in India, has filed an appeal with the United Nations against the alleged illegal detention of his 26-year-old daughter in Uganda.
Ms Vasundhara Oswal was reportedly arrested by around 20 armed men, who did not produce an identification or warrant, from the family’s extra-neutral alcohol (ENA) plant in Uganda on Oct 1. ENA is the purest form of alcohol, with no taste or smell.
A post on her Instagram detailed her “unlawful detainment and arrest”, showing a toilet with blood and faeces on the floor. The post claimed that she was forced to sit in a room for more than 90 hours and not allowed to bathe or change her clothes for five days.
She was also denied basic necessities like clean water and proper food, was given a small bench to sleep on and made to participate in a suspect parade.
Another post on her Instagram quoted her brother as describing Vasundhara as a “workaholic”, who developed the US$110 million ($144 million) ENA plant in Uganda’s Luwero from “a small tent on a bare land in 2021”.
He said her detention was the result of corporate jealousy by an unnamed 68-year-old man, whom he charged with an attempt to extort money and smear her reputation.
The brother further claimed that the authorities did not release her despite a court order, and instead took her to a court where she was charged with murder.
According to The Monitor, Ms Vasundhara was remanded in prison on charges of kidnapping with intent to kill Mr Mukesh Kumar Menaria, a chef who worked with the family for seven years.
However, her mother Radhika Oswal, in an appeal to the Ugandan government, said: “My young daughter has been thrown into a foreign jail. She has been stripped of her basic human rights and her dignity. Vasundhara is an innocent bystander. All I want is her safety.”
The family has appealed to the United Nations Working Group (WGAD) to intervene. WGAD is a body of international human rights specialists appointed by the Human Rights Council to investigate the misuse of police powers.
