Dreams Cut Short in a Foreign Land: Jharkhand Worker Killed in Saudi Crossfire, Family Refuses to Bring Body Home Without Justice
In a quiet village in Jharkhand’s Giridih district, a home once filled with the laughter of children now echoes only with grief.
The village of Dudhapania in Dumri block is mourning the tragic loss of 27-year-old Vijay Kumar Mahato, a young father who left India with hopes of building a better life — only to return in a coffin that still hasn’t come home.
Vijay had gone to Saudi Arabia a year ago, working for Hyundai Engineering and Construction on transmission line projects.
For his family, his journey overseas was not just a job — it was the promise of a brighter future for his two little sons, aged just five and three.
Each salary he sent home was a brick in the foundation of the dreams he hoped to build for them.
But on October 15, destiny turned cruel.
According to his family, Vijay was simply walking near his worksite when a sudden storm of gunfire shattered the normalcy of the day.
Local police were engaged in a fierce encounter with an extortion gang linked to the illegal liquor trade.
In that chaos, a bullet meant for criminals found an innocent man instead.
“He was just at the wrong place at the wrong time,” said his brother-in-law, Ram Prasad Mahato, his voice trembling.
Even in those final moments, Vijay’s thoughts were with his family. He recorded a voice note to his wife in the Kortha language, desperately explaining that he had been hit by a stray bullet.
He pleaded for help, perhaps holding onto hope that he would survive. But fate had already written a different ending. Despite being rushed to a hospital, Vijay succumbed to his injuries.
His family received the heartbreaking news nine days later, on October 24.
Today, in his village, his wife sits surrounded by loved ones — a widow much too young, clutching the phone that carries his last message, replaying his voice as though it might bring him back.
Their two little boys, unaware of the finality of death, still ask when their father will return from Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, officials in Jharkhand have begun formal procedures to bring Vijay’s body home.
The state’s Migrant Control Cell has written to the Protector of Emigrants and the Indian Embassy in Riyadh.
The Consulate General in Jeddah, which is handling the case, has called the death “suspicious,” and Vijay’s remains are now held by Saudi authorities as investigations continue.
Back in Dudhapania, grief has turned into resolve.
The family is refusing to complete paperwork to receive the body until the company promises compensation. We won’t bring him back until we get written assurance.”
Says Ram Prasad — not out of defiance, but dignity.
“He gave his life working for them. They must take responsibility.”
For families like Vijay’s, every goodbye at the airport is mixed with fear. Thousands of young Indians leave home each year seeking employment abroad — carrying not just luggage, but the weight of their families’ hopes.
Vijay’s story is a painful reminder that sometimes those hopes are shattered miles away from the soil that raised them.
A mother waits. A wife mourns. Two little boys look toward a door that will never open again.
And a village prays that the man who chased hope across borders will at least return to the land he called home — with dignity and justice.
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