Gujarat-based engineer, stranded in Iran for 13 mths, returns

Sanket Pandya, an employee of Goa-based firm Power Engineering who was stranded in Iran since December 2013, today landed in Mumbai from Tehran and was on his to Vadodara, his hometown.
Pandya and his colleague Mohammed Hussain Khan from Haryana were allowed to leave the country by the Iranian authorities two days ago.
Their passports had been seized in December 2013 following a contractual dispute between the Indian firm and an Iranian company based in Zanjan.
Pandya told PTI over phone from Surat that they were told about permission to leave the country only at the last moment.
"I could not inform even my wife and my mother about our release as the development was very fast," he said.

"I want to thank everyone who helped me and my colleague Khan in getting out of Iran, including the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, MP Parimal Nathwani and Indian embassy officials," he said.
"For the last 13 months we were praying for his safe return," said Priti Pandya, his wife, here.
Pandya and Khan were part of the Indian team sent to Iran for supervision of installation and pre-commissioning of a power plant in Zanjan by Vazarjahan Company. Since January 2014 they were living in a hotel in Tehran.