The Curious Case Of Kulbhushan Jadhav

A look at the main events from Jadhav’s arrest to the ICJ ruling to what’s in store for Indo-Pak relations...

- Madhavi Gokhlay

At a time when India-Pakistan ties are already under severe strain, what direction this particular case takes may well determine the course of future diplomacy between the two countries.

Kulbhushan Jadhav, a former Indian Navy officer, was arrested on March 3, 2016 by Pak security forces from the province of Balochistan. On April 10, 2017, after a three-and-a-half month trial, a Pak military court sentenced him to death for “involvement in espionage and terrorist activities in Pakistan”. Pakistan alleged that Jadhav was an agent for India’s external intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), a claim that India vehemently denied.

From the time of Jadhav’s arrest till date, Pakistan has refused over a dozen requests by India for consular access to him, along with a certified copy of the charge sheet and the judgment. A request as recent as July 1 too was rejected, with Pakistan foreign office spokesperson Nafees Zakariya reportedly saying that India’s attempt to equate the Jadhav case with those of prisoners and fishermen was a travesty of logic. Zakariya went so far as to claim that while Pakistan had ensured effective implementation of the consular access agreement with India, India had been deliberately delaying the release of civilian and juvenile Pak prisoners.

The failure of this bilateral track had already led India to move the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the judicial wing of the United Nations, against the death penalty awarded to Jadhav.