An Indian diplomat based in Shanghai was ill-treated and had to be hospitalised, prompting India to lodge a protest with the Chinese authorities.
S Balachandran, 46, a diabetic, was attending a court hearing in Yiwu city near Shanghai on December 31 when he fainted after being disallowed from going out of the court room till the proceedings were over.
His condition deteriorated later and he had to be admitted to a hospital where he is recuperating, officials said.
Balachandran had gone to the court in connection with a case related to the kidnapping of two Indian traders.
Not taking the incident lightly, the Indian government lodged a protest with the Chinese authorities in Beijing, Shanghai and New Delhi.
Zhang Yue, Deputy Chief of the Chinese Mission in New Delhi, was summoned by the external affairs ministry and told that this was not the way to treat a diplomat.
Sources said Zhang was told that since Balachandran was a diabetic, he required regular intake of food and should have been allowed access to it.
“This seems to be a civic-commercial dispute. We would do our best to handle this properly,” Zhang said emerging from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
“I just listened to the officials from the MEA about what has happened. We are trying to find out what had happened actually,” he said.
Similar protests were lodged by the Indian Consulate General with local authorities in Shanghai and by the Indian Embassy with the foreign ministry in Beijing, sources said.
Riva Ganguly Das, India’s Consul General in Shanghai had earlier said Balachandran fainted when he was “manhandled” while attempting to get the release of Deepak Raheja and Shyamsunder Agrawal, the two traders who were kidnapped.
