Summary:
By Express News ServiceHYDERABAD: Even as Mehul Choksi cools his heels in Antigua, 635 employees, including over 235 persons with disabilities (PwD), of Gitanjali Gems in the city have been rendered jobless since the financial fraud broke out. While Choksi fled India, his 635 employees in the city received neither their pending salaries for three months nor their Provident Fund (PF) money. After the company was closed, the SEZ authorities had promised alternate employment for the 635 employees. The employees allege that after the shutdown, the SEZ authority and contractors washed their hands off the situation without settling pending salaries or providing PF. Rama Krishna, a PwD who lost his cutter’s job with Gitanjali Gems SEZ, said that he had worked in the company for six years, but is now unemployed for over a year..