By Manish Chand, IANS,
Beijing : India’s External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna Wednesday met two Indian traders embroiled in a dispute with locals over defaulting payment running into millions of dollars in China’s commodity hub Yiwu and said he will take up the issue with the Chinese foreign minister Thursday.
“I had a good meeting with two traders today. I told them I will be meeting the Chinese foreign minister tomorrow. I certainly will take up the issue with him,” Krishna told Indian journalists here at Raffles Hotel in Beijing.
He was speaking after a meeting with Deepak Raheja and Shyam Sunder Agarwal, two Indian traders who were taken captive by locals in a hotel in Yiwu, a trading hub near Shanghai, for alleged fraud involving millions of dollars.
They were later released in January after the Indian consulate in Shanghai intervened. But as they were to be tried in a local court, they can’t leave China.
The case has become more complicated after fresh charges of fraud were brought against them recently.
India has issued two advisories in January and May asking Indian traders not to do business in Yiwu. China has maintained that it’s a matter of civil litigation and the law will take its own course.
(Manish Chand can be contacted at [email protected])