As the news of the sentencing of Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav to death by a Pakistan military court surfaced, people flocked to his family’s apartment in the city but found it to be locked.
It was later revealed that Jadhav’s family members had moved to Pune and no one was staying in the flat. “The family has moved to Pune and no one lives here. The flat is empty and is generally locked,” a neighbor said.
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A dozen police personnel reached the building in suburban Powai soon after the news of the 46-year-old’s death sentence spread. A large number of media persons also rushed to the spot. Locals too gathered outside the residential complex.
However, the managing committee members of the housing society prevented people from going inside the building. Pakistan claims its security forces had arrested Jadhav from the restive Balochistan province on March 3 last year after he reportedly entered from Iran. It also claimed that he was “a serving officer in the Indian Navy.”
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He has been accused by Pakistan of planning “subversive activities” in the country, a charge strongly denied by his family members. They have maintained that Jadhav may have strayed into Pakistan or lured to the place with some business proposal.
Jadhav’s father Sudhir is a former assistant commissioner of police. The Indian government has maintained that proceedings leading to the sentence against Jadhav are “farcical in the absence of any credible evidence” against him. Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said Jadhav was kidnapped last year from Iran and his subsequent presence in Pakistan has never been “explained credibly”. India had acknowledged that Jadhav had served with the navy, but denied that he had any connection with the government.