After spending 50 days in captivity, Chaitanya Hari , an engineer with IL&FS Transportation Network Ltd (ITNL) in Ethiopia , was hoping to be released on Tuesday to be home in time for his sister’s wedding next week.What had raised expectations for Hari and his three colleagues was Exim Bank’s move to lift the freeze on ITNL’s bank account. When this was done, they demanded severance pay for 10 months, which has now been reduced to four months. That puts the bill at less than $200,000, which IL&FS has failed to pay up for over a month now.Around 450 km away in Addis Ababa, three other ITNL employees have spent a few weeks in jail as the bankrupt IL&FS group has refused to clear tax dues of around $1.5 million. While two of the arrested employees are now out of the legal tangle, their passports have been taken away. IL&FS spokesperson refused to comment on the issue.IL&FS employees in Ethiopia and India put a part of the blame on the government and alleged that the Indian embassy was completely ineffective.

Source: Ethiopian News January 16, 2019 04:41 UTC