BATHINDA: He tried his hands at a dairy farm but lumpy skin cattle disease put a spanner in his plans. He then got into horse trading but that didn’t run, either. Then 32-year-old Gurpreet Singh Bhangu tried to sneak into the US, only for his fortunes to take a turn for the worse.
A resident of Baggeana village in Faridkot, Gurpreet was among 116 illegal immigrants deported by the US on Saturday. The family is so shattered that they declined to speak to anyone for the time being. Village residents, too, are at pains to describe the ordeal of Gurpreet, also known as Prince Bhangu. He reached home in the wee hours of Sunday but stayed put inside home.
Baggeana former panchayat member Mangal Kumar recalled Gurpreet’s failed dairy venture, saying lumpy skin disease killed many of his cattle and led him to shut down the business. The chain of failure extended to horses.
Having decided there was no way to make a living at home, Gurpreet tried to settle in foreign shores and reached Italy. The family had earlier told TOI that during his stay in Italy, Gurpreet met a travel agent who promised him entry into the US.
Gurpreet arranged Rs 25 lakh & reached US through donkey route. But once there, he was caught and put in a detention centre, from where he was finally deported. Mangal contended that the central and state govts must come to the support of families whose members migrate for greener pastures spending huge sums of money. “The system, too, is responsible for their ordeal.”
Faridkot DSP Shamer Singh Shergill, who had gone to Amritsar airport to bring Gurpreet home, promised action if such families approached them. “Whenever a complaint is filed by an aggrieved family, appropriate action will be taken against the travel agent,” the DSP said.