An Indian is stranded in Bahrain for the last over 28 years as he has not been able to pay a phone bill of over Rs 2 lakh.

According to Mohammed Karuppan, when he went to the General Directorate of Nationality, Passports and Residence to leave the country, he was told that he could not do so until he paid the Batelco phone bill.

The 52-year-old man has not left the country since he arrived 28 years ago.

Karuppan claims that a former colleague convinced him to use his CPR to register the GSM phone connection and that he had nothing else to do with the disconnected number, which accumulated the amount within a month in 1998.

"A month after taking the connection, I received the bill of BD 1,661. The friend rented out the phone to people to make international calls," Karuppan told the Gulf Daily.

"I kept sending my monthly salary of BD50 to my family in Kerala because there's no one else to support them.

"Probably, I'll be stuck in Bahrain until I die and will never be able to see my family again," he added.