Kolkata/Jalpaiguri: A home-bound Russian fashion designer was caught in Bengal's red tape and forced to stay back for a month before help finally arrived and retrieved her from a women's shelter on Friday.
Alesya Kostenko, who hails from the Russian town Stroitel in Belgorod near the Ukraine border, finally sets off for home via Delhi on Monday morning after Russian authorities got in touch with Indian external affairs ministry officials to `rescue' her from a state social welfare department home. This was the second home she had been in apart from a hospital during a month-long ordeal that began on June 14.
That evening, Kostenko had been found to be somewhat lost and incomprehensible by CISF personnel at Bagdogra airport. According to the 31-year-old, she was attempting to change her travel plans and fly home via Delhi instead of Kolkata when a malfunction in her credit card left her momentarily lost. While deliberating what to do next, the last flight flew out of Bagdogra airport.When CISF jawans asked her why she was still hanging around, she tried to explain but no one could understand her as she could speak only Russian.
When the consulate learned about Kostenko, they contacted her mother Larisa Shmigerova in Russia. Shmigerova flew down to India and reached Kolkata on Thursday . She went straight to the women's home to retrieve her daugh ter, but was denied permission.
All Bengal Women's Union, the shelter home where Kostenko was kept for the last few days, refused to let her go despite a no-objection certificate from the external affairs ministry and a guarantee letter from the Russian consulate. The shelter authorities claimed they needed a court order to release the woman since a magistrate court had asked the home to take care of the girl. Eventually , after innumerable phone calls to various offices and a series of permissions, Kostenko was finally released on Friday night.
18/07/16 Rohit Khanna & Pinak Priya Bhattacharya/Times of India
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Alesya Kostenko, who hails from the Russian town Stroitel in Belgorod near the Ukraine border, finally sets off for home via Delhi on Monday morning after Russian authorities got in touch with Indian external affairs ministry officials to `rescue' her from a state social welfare department home. This was the second home she had been in apart from a hospital during a month-long ordeal that began on June 14.
That evening, Kostenko had been found to be somewhat lost and incomprehensible by CISF personnel at Bagdogra airport. According to the 31-year-old, she was attempting to change her travel plans and fly home via Delhi instead of Kolkata when a malfunction in her credit card left her momentarily lost. While deliberating what to do next, the last flight flew out of Bagdogra airport.When CISF jawans asked her why she was still hanging around, she tried to explain but no one could understand her as she could speak only Russian.
When the consulate learned about Kostenko, they contacted her mother Larisa Shmigerova in Russia. Shmigerova flew down to India and reached Kolkata on Thursday . She went straight to the women's home to retrieve her daugh ter, but was denied permission.
All Bengal Women's Union, the shelter home where Kostenko was kept for the last few days, refused to let her go despite a no-objection certificate from the external affairs ministry and a guarantee letter from the Russian consulate. The shelter authorities claimed they needed a court order to release the woman since a magistrate court had asked the home to take care of the girl. Eventually , after innumerable phone calls to various offices and a series of permissions, Kostenko was finally released on Friday night.
18/07/16 Rohit Khanna & Pinak Priya Bhattacharya/Times of India
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