IN DECEMBER 2023, as he sat throughout a desk at Sharjah Central Jail throughout a go to, Clayton Rodrigues, 37, peered at his youthful brother Malcolm’s ft. “I’m simply checking to see in case you are carrying the footwear I had bought. Don’t begin carrying my new garments, haan, in my absence. I’ll put on them as soon as I return,” Malcom quotes his brother as saying.
The joke and the loud guffaw that adopted have been typical of his brother, Malcom says, one thing that immediately lifted the stress off essentially the most nerve-wracking of conditions.
For practically 20 months now, since February 2023, Clayton has been languishing in a Sharjah jail, allegedly framed in a medicine case by Mumbai-based baker Anthony Paul. On April 1, 2023, actor Chrisann Pereira, additionally allegedly framed by Paul, was arrested in Sharjah. Although the Indian authorities managed to safe her return in August 2023 — she spent three weeks in a Sharjah jail — since her case hadn’t gone to courtroom, Clayton was already convicted by then.
Whereas Paul, who was arrested in April 2023, was launched on bail on September 24 by the Bombay Excessive Court docket, Clayton is serving a 25-year time period given to him by an area Sharjah courtroom in June 2023. Having misplaced an enchantment within the Sharjah Excessive Court docket in November 2023, Clayton’s solely shot at freedom now’s a listening to earlier than the Supreme Court docket there.
A nightmare and a wrestle
When she shouldn’t be juggling a 9-to-5 job, taking good care of their daughter, 11, and her paralysed father-in-law, 73, Clayton’s spouse Falyn, 38, is placing on a courageous face as she counts pennies to pay the hefty authorized charges concerned within the course of or tries to get the Indian authorities’s consideration so it will probably elevate her husband’s case with the UAE. All through this “nightmare”, she says, her brother-in-law Malcolm has been her fixed companion.
Seated subsequent to Falyn in a home in Mumbai’s Vile Parle, Malcolm says they discover solace in the truth that they will speak to Clayton over the payphone. “We normally communicate to him on alternate days since ISD fees are fairly excessive,” he tells The Indian Categorical.
Falyn and Malcolm determine beforehand on what info to withhold from Clayton. “We don’t wish to get his hopes up, solely to have them dashed later. We attempt to sound cheerful, however I ask Malcolm to take over once I really feel low. At occasions, Clayton is the one cheering us up. All of us take turns being robust,” she says, holding again her tears.
On his “unhealthy days”, she says, all that Clayton mumbles into the telephone is that he doesn’t wish to speak. “At occasions, he will get impatient and says we’re not doing sufficient. He was the household troubleshooter…,” says a visibly emotional Falyn.
The arrest and the aftermath
After they learnt about his arrest in February 2023, his household approached the Vile Parle police station for assist and likewise tried to succeed in out to Indian officers in Sharjah, however in useless. Then, in April 2023, Chrisann’s arrest made headlines. Her arrest noticed the Mumbai Crime Department begin an investigation, resulting in the arrests of Paul and his confederate Rajesh Borate on April 24, 2023.
After Paul’s 4 different alleged victims, together with Clayton’s household, approached the police, the sleuths found how the baker had allegedly used the identical modus operandi to actual his revenge — his confederate Borate supplied all his purported victims a UAE gig, full with flight tickets.
On the day of their journey, he requested them to both carry a trophy or a cake to Sharjah. As per the plan, Paul then tipped-off the Sharjah Airport Authority (SAA) a few passenger carrying medication hidden in a trophy or a cake. The police stated Paul selected Sharjah since drug legal guidelines there are “extraordinarily stringent”. In line with the chargesheet, of Paul’s 5 alleged victims, solely Clayton and Chrisann carried the articles to Sharjah.
In Clayton’s case, the probe states that Paul was upset over an incident that occurred throughout a visit their households took collectively to a farmhouse in 2019. The households knew one another by a standard buddy. Additionally current on the journey was the spouse of Paul’s deceased cousin — they have been in a relationship then — and her son. In the course of the journey, the probe states, the boy remarked that Clayton was loads like his deceased father. The remark left Paul fuming in silence the entire time, states the investigation.
In January 2023, Borate posed as an occasion supervisor and supplied Clayton an audition for a DJ gig in Dubai. Earlier than his flight to Sharjah on February 6, 2023, Borate requested him to take a cake for an acquaintance. The chargesheet says Paul then tipped-off the SAA concerning the drug-laced cake, resulting in the DJ’s incarceration.
A Mumbai Crime Department officer advised The Indian Categorical, “A duplicate of the chargesheet (filed by them) was translated into Arabic and despatched to Sharjah. We have now accomplished all we may for Clayton. Now, the matter is within the fingers of the federal government.”
To date, Clayton’s household has modified their legal professionals, despatched umpteen emails to the Indian Embassy in Dubai and the Exterior Affairs Minister, in addition to looking for assist from native politicians and actors.
Moved by Clayton’s plight, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi lately wrote to Exterior Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, looking for the federal government’s assist. The Exterior Affairs Ministry spokesperson didn’t reply to queries by The Indian Categorical on efforts being taken by the federal government to safe Clayton’s launch.
An extended combat
Realising that his authorized battle goes to be a “long-drawn-out one”, Falyn says her husband has “already learn 4 books, has been figuring out and has additionally learnt Arabic”. “We jokingly inform him that he’ll return as an upgraded model of himself,” she says.
When Malcolm met him in Sharjah in December 2023, Clayton was in good spirits. “When he noticed me, he claimed he didn’t recognise me as I had placed on weight. He stated we’d get match as soon as he’s again,” he says.
Later, by an inmate who was deported to India, Clayton despatched throughout a cross he had made out of khaboos (bread) and dried dates for his daughter. He additionally despatched a letter addressed to Falyn, wherein he thanks his household for standing by him.
Revealing that Clayton is known as “Dunga” by his associates, after the Brazilian soccer supervisor, Falyn says, “He has made associates in jail too. They made a cake for his birthday with the rations accessible to them and used cake packing containers to make a flower that stated ‘Glad Birthday DJ’.”
Although Malcolm feels furious at Paul “for wrecking our lives over one thing so petty”, he says Clayton is extra involved concerning the time he’s shedding out on.
“Clayton retains telling me there isn’t a level in losing extra time on Paul. After he returns, Clayton has plans to go on just a few pilgrimages and begin working once more after a month.”
