MEA takes cognizance of Lucknow businessman arrested in Albania jail

LUCKNOW: The ministry of external affairs took cognizance of the arrest of a Lucknow businessman in Albania for alleged 'drug trafficking', a day after TOI reported the plight of Nitin Mishra on Sunday.
UK-based lawyer Harjot Singh, who is handling the case, said on Tuesday the MEA lodged a case at their grievance app MADAD on Tuesday and began a formal probe in the case of 'mistaken identity' which landed Mishra in Albania jail.
Singh told TOI that the MEA has formally listed the issue on its app taking cognizance of TOI reports. "It's the first step towards government intervention in the case," he said. Singh had written to the PM office and MEA about the 'illegal' arrest of Mishra without informing Indian authorities and following UN conventions.
"We have got a formal mail from the MEA in which they have registered our case of release and repatriation of Nitin Mishra who is detained in Albania in connection with a drug case," Singh said.
‘Have faith in Modi govt, hopeful of my son’s early release’
Singh also said that former UK minister and member of parliament Keith Vazagain wrote to the Albanian PM Edi Rama after his earlier communication over phone call and through a letter yielded no response.
"In his letter, Vaz has requested that Mishra be provided consular access and other assistance. The letter has also been marked to Indian Ambassador to Albania, Rahul Shrivastava, and Albanian ambassador to UK, Qirjako Qirko," Singh told TOI. Singh also disclosed that he learnt from his lawyer friends in Albania that Nitin had been framed in a drugs case and also accused of money-laundering. He will soon move to the European Court of Human Rights, appealing against the violation of Vienna convention and human rights. Nitin's father Vasudev Mishra said that after MEA's intervention, he was hopeful of early release of his son. "I have faith in the Modi government and also in the lawyers that they will get my son back," said Vasudev.
"He had gone to Albania for just five days and wanted to come back and start a manufacturing unit in Lucknow so that the clothes could be exported to that country," he said. Nitin Mishra, a Lucknow-based readymade garment exporter, was arrested in Albanian capital Tirana on October 14 on charges of drug trafficking.
The Albanian police reportedly acted in coordination with US's Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to arrest him. He has been remanded in police custody pending his possible extradition to the USA. The family came to know through an Albanian English newspaper that he had been arrested in Rinas, 20 km from Tirana, by the local police. Nitin's family didn't get any formal communication from Albanian authorities or police about his arrest.