NEW DELHI: Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday
assured lawmakers that New Delhi would go ‘out of its way’ to save sentenced spy Kulbhushan Jadhav from death row in Pakistan, according to Indian media reports.
Calling Jadhav ‘a son of India’, Swaraj issued a warning to Pakistan saying, “I would caution the Pakistani government to consider the consequences for our bilateral relationship
if they proceed on this matter.”
“Our position is very clear, there is no evidence of wrongdoing by Kulbhushan Jadhav,” Swaraj told Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian parliament.
R
20;This is an act of premeditated murder,” she said, referring to the death sentence handed to the Indian spy by a Field General Court Martial (FGCM).
Swaraj
assured parliamentarians that the government would not stop at just ensuring Jadhav has the best of lawyers to fight his case in the Supreme Court, but would ‘go out of the way to save him’.
When asked by a lawmaker
if the government would fight Jadhav’s case in the Pakistani apex court, Swaraj said, “We will do more. We will take it up with the president [Mamnoon Hussain],” The Hindu reported.
The Indian minister of external affairs, Swaraj, alleged that Jadhav was awarded the death sentence on ‘concocted charges’.
“Jadhav was doing a business in Iran and he was abducted and taken to Pakistan. We sought consular access, but were denied,” she claimed. “He is innocent. They [Pakistan] seek through him to cast aspersions in India to hide their own role in terror.”
The lower house of the Indian parliament, the Lok Sabha, was united in condemning Jadhav’s sentence.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh, addressing the Lok Sabha, said, “I condemn it [Jadhav’s death sentence] as an illegal act against the norms of the rule of law and international convention.”
“Whatever has to be done to do justice with Kulbhushan will be done by the government,” he added.
Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav was arrested on March 3, 2016, through a counter-intelligence operation in Balochistan’s Mashkel area for his involvement in espionage and sabotage activities against Pakistan, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement on Mon
day.
Although the accused had been provided with a defending lawyer as per legal provisions, according to the ISPR, Pakistan had turned down India’s request seeking consular access to Jadhav l
ast year due to his involvement in ‘subversive activities’ in the country.
Jadhav was tried by the FGCM under Section 59 of the PAA and Section 3 of the official Secret Act of 1923, the statement said.
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