The wife of a doctor from Tiruvallur district has sought the intervention of the Centre and State governments to secure the return of her husband who was allegedly detained by Russian authorities at Sochi Airport in September.
Dr. K. Jagadeeswaran, who completed his medical degree from an Armenian university in 2022, has been living in Armenia with his wife Yamini, from Nanganallur in Chennai, and their daughter since then. The couple had travelled to Tamil Nadu in August to visit their families. During the visit, Jagadeeswaran’s friend Shekhar Manikandan, who runs an educational consultancy in Russia, requested him to accompany him to Russia as he was fluent in the language.
The duo left Chennai on September 15 on tourist visas. However, upon landing at Sochi Airport, they were taken for questioning by immigration officials. According to Yamini, the authorities detained her husband on September 16, while Shekhar was released a week later and deported to India.
Ms. Yamini alleged that her husband was tortured and humiliated in custody without any reason and that his health had deteriorated due to poor conditions. Although he was eventually released after hiring a local lawyer, Mr. Jagadeeswaran was only given back his passport and denied other travel documents, preventing him from reaching Moscow to contact the Indian Embassy, she alleged.
“The authorities accused him of disobeying their orders, which is untrue. He was mistreated and denied proper food, leading to his blood sugar level dropping drastically,” Ms. Yamini said.
She also alleged that repeated appeals to the Ministry of External Affairs and the BJP Tamil Nadu office seeking their intervention have so far yielded no results.
Published – November 10, 2025 05:45 am IST
