Duped by a travel agent and left to languish in the jungles of Russia, a Jalandhar youth who spent over a month in harrowing conditions has now urged others not to undertake similar misadventures after being lured by fraudulent agents.Forced to stay in tiny, dingy rooms inside scrapyards and surviving a drone attack, the youth, who has now returned to Jalandhar, shared his ordeal with the press on Thursday.Akashdeep, a Jalandhar resident from the district’s Ramnagar area, said he boarded a flight to Moscow on June 15 after his agent promised him a job packing fruits in Moscow. However, he was instead left to fend for himself in a forest outside Moscow when he refused to join the Russian army.He said he had been promised a work visa, good pay and an air-conditioned stay with decent working conditions provided by the company, but all these assurances turned out to be false.Sharing details of his ordeal in Jalandhar, he said he spent Rs 8-9 lakh on his journey and stay in Russia. Akashdeep has filed a complaint with the Jalandhar police against Ramnagar-based agent Pawan Kumar and his Delhi-based associates.A series of videos that Akashdeep posted from Russia on Instagram have also gone viral.Speaking to the press, Akashdeep said, “I was promised a job paying Rs 1.20 lakh per month packing fruits in Moscow by Ramnagar-based cloth merchant Pawan Kumar, who was also working as a travel agent. He fixed the deal with my brother for Rs 6 lakh. On June 13, the ticket to Moscow that I was originally sent to Delhi with turned out to be fake, as it had already been used by a Russian national on June 8. After a two-day stay in Delhi, I was sent to Moscow on June 15.”Akashdeep alleged that the agent’s middlemen dropped him off at a deserted establishment in the middle of a jungle in Russia, where he was forced to share a tiny room with 10 other people.He said the other youths with him were from Haryana and Rajasthan.He further claimed that he was pressured to join the Russian army and, after refusing, was abandoned by the agent in the jungle, where he was left lost and clueless.Akashdeep alleged, “Indian youths are promised jobs paying over Rs 1 lakh with 10-hour work shifts, but once they reach there, they are forced to work for 15 hours until they are exhausted. We were kept in extremely poor conditions. The agent asked me to either join the army or take up other difficult jobs. When I refused a 15-hour shift in the army, he told me I was on my own. Agents work with touts there who look for Indians to recruit into the army. Once there, youths are persuaded to join the army with promises of earning lakhs. But in reality, many gullible youths trapped in this situation are not paid as promised.”Abandoned in the jungle, he said he was caught in a drone attack while many other youths fled or scattered.Akashdeep added, “I, along with a Rajasthani youth, followed railway tracks through the forest and reached a railway station. There, a kind Russian helped us by arranging tickets and helped us return to a friend in Moscow. From there, with their assistance, I returned to India.”Akashdeep said, “I only want my Rs 6 lakh back and action against the agents. I appeal to the youth to beware of fraudulent agents. Instead, they should stay in India and work here.”