Mangaluru: A 35-year-old epileptic man from Ullal, Mangaluru has been put behind bars in Saudi Arabia two months ago after he was detained at Dammam Airport. His crime was that he was carrying, along with their other baggage, a stock of epilepsy medication that would last him for six months. Unfortunately, he did not have the doctor’s prescriptions and that amounted to the crime of smuggling.
Over the last two months, an one minute phone call is all what Siyabuddin Fayaz Ullal has been able to do.
After staying in Mangaluru for one year, after his marriage, Fayaz boarded the flight from Mangaluru to Dammam on October 3. He was to head to Riyadh, where he worked for several years. Very little did Fayaz know that after a ‘Good Bye’ at Mangaluru Airport, he was running into great trouble. 
Fayaz, as per his family, has been an epileptic for 16 years and he was put on medications. However, on leaving India he had taken a stock of tablets – Zeptol CR (Carbamazepine) 1200 mg and Cloba (Lobazam) 10mg that were enough to last for six months. The reason was that these tablets were much cheaper in India when compared to Saudi Arabia.
The family has got in touch with Minister for Food and Civil Supplies and local MLA U T Khader, who in turn had forwarded them to deputy chairman of the NRI Forum in the state government.
Meanwhile, a relative of Siyabuddin went to Riyadh to submit the requisite documents, mainly the doctor’s prescription, which stated that he suffered from complex partial seizures and was carrying six months’ worth of medicines from India. They are now awaiting response from the Saudi authorities.
