Bilaspur Family Seeks Help After 21-Year-Old Son Goes Missing in Russia

A 17-year-old girl in Chhattisgarh has spent 21 days running to government officials and posting videos online to locate her 21-year-old brother, Vineet Kumar Dubey, who went missing in Russia after taking up a job offer.

The Journey to Russia

Vineet Kumar Dubey, who studied up to class 10 and lived in Bilaspur's Bila town, was offered a position in Russia as a food storage supervisor at a restaurant with a monthly salary of $1,200. The company spent around Rs 70,000 on his tourist visa and flight tickets, though he received no job contract or city assignment. Believing he had secured the role due to his English fluency, he left Bilaspur on September 29, flew to Moscow on October 1, and then travelled to Volgograd. He was kept alone in an apartment for five days before things turned worse.

Distress Calls and Detention

On October 6, Dubey called his sister sounding scared, stating the company had misled him and was forcing him to work as a delivery man. Later that night, he told his father he was being taken somewhere the next day and his phone would be switched off. By October 8, his sister contacted the Indian embassy and the MADAD portal, where an official replied that Dubey was in a detention centre for carrying an illegal substance. Another caller later demanded Rs 3.5 lakh to hire a lawyer, claiming Dubey would be pushed into the war with Ukraine. On October 13, Dubey sent a final voice message apologizing to his family and stating he expected to be gone for six to seven years.

Recent Updates

On Tuesday, the Dubey family received an audio message from a man claiming to be at the detention centre with Dubey, stating that Dubey had died by suicide. Bilaspur Senior Superintendent of Police Rajnesh Singh said police received the family's complaint and wrote to the Indian embassy a week ago without receiving a response yet. Bilaspur collector Sanjay Agrawal stated the administration has approached the Ministry of External Affairs.

Context

Families of young men from various parts of India have increasingly reported cases where relatives travelled abroad for routine jobs only to get stranded or trapped in foreign conflict zones under false promises. The MADAD portal and the Ministry of External Affairs handle consular grievances and coordinate with foreign missions to trace missing citizens and provide legal assistance. Local district administrations and state police forces often act as intermediaries by escalating such distress cases to federal diplomatic channels.