India will make fresh efforts to get consular access to former naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav, who was sentenced to death by a Pakistan military court on charges of spying.
“We have issued instructions to our High Commission in Islamabad to take steps to renew our request for consular access to Mr. Jadhav,” said an official source, indicating that despite the failure of 13 past requests, India will make one more attempt to get consular access to Mr. Jadhav.
The Ministry of External Affairs said that India needs consular access to him as it is difficult to verify the charges levelled against him. The MEA said that it did not get any response from Pakistan on his whereabouts or from Iran about the conditions in which he was taken away by Pakistani authorities.
‘Farcical trial’
“The trial of Kulbhushan Jadhav was farcical and due process of law has been denied to him... it is necessary to get access to him to probe the allegations levelled against him,” official spokesperson Gopal Baglay said and added, “Pakistan had to grant consular access to India expeditiously but that was not done”.
The Ministry also stated that it had no idea about the physical condition of Mr. Jadhav. “We do not know about his condition nor has Pakistan government informed us about his location,” the spokesperson said, maintaining that the government is in touch with his family.
No info from Iran
The MEA also could not inform about what has been Iran’s response to India’s requests for finding out more about the case. “We had spoken to Iran last year. But there is no information about the investigation (conducted) in that country. We sought support of the government of Iran on this matter as Mr. Jadhav was doing legitimate business in the port of Chahbahar,” he said.
MEA’s defence of Mr. Jadhav came even as Pakistan described him as “RAW’s agent” and blamed him for involvement in “subversive and anti-Pakistan” activities.
India however described Mr. Jadhav’s arrest by Pakistan as ‘kidnapping’. “Let us get the facts right. Kulbhushan Jadhav is a kidnapped innocent Indian who is a retired officer of the Indian navy and these facts were communicated to Pakistan a year ago when the matter of his illegal custody came to our knowledge,” said Mr Baglay.
