Who is Kulbhushan Jadhav?

• Kulbhushan Sudhir Jadhav was born to a Mumbai Police officer in Sangli, Maharashtra on the 16th of April 1970.

• His family has been involved in serving the government and police forces for up to three generations and his uncle is an ACP in Mumbai.

• He spent his childhood in the NM Joshi area in Central Mumbai, and his wife and two children currently reside in Powai.

• The Indian government recognizes him as a former naval officer and maintains that he took premature retirement from his duties for an unspecified reason.

Pakistan’s side of the story:

• Kulbhushan Jadhav was arrested in Pakistan’s insurgent southwestern province in Balochistan on March 3rd, 2016. 

• Pakistan claims that he is a serving commander-ranked officer in the Indian Navy and was arrested during a counter-intelligence operation. 

• On April 10th 2017, Jadhav was sentenced to death by a Pakistani Military Court on charges of “espionage, sabotage and terrorism”. 

• Shortly after his arrest, Pakistan released a video of Jadhav confessing to having conducted and organized a campaign of attacks against Pakistani security forces and civilian targets as well as aiding armed groups. 

• Balochistan is a strategically critical location for Pakistan as it has seen both sectarian and separatist violence in the past decade and is crucial to the development of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.                                                                                         

• The Pakistani government allowed Jadhav’s mother and wife to visit him in December 2017 on humanitarian grounds. The two women met Jadhav from behind a glass screen in a specially constructed room and were accompanied by the Deputy High Commissioner of India, JP Singh.   

India’s side of the story:

• The Indian Government recognizes Kulbhushan Jadhav as a former naval officer but denies that he has any other links with the government. They maintain that he took premature retirement and was possibly abducted from Iran. 

• They insist that Jadhav is a civilian and not a spy, further claiming that the Pakistani government's case is a farce and based on malicious propaganda. 

• In response to the Pakistani government sentencing Jadhav to death, India approached the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on May 8, 2017.

• India alleged at the ICJ that Jadhav was an innocent who did not receive a fair trial and was denied consular access as required under the Vienna Convention. 

• Furthermore, India dismissed Jadhav’s meeting with his family where he had admitted to being guilty as a tactical move by Pakistan, stating that Jadhav was held in a coercive atmosphere. 

• India also accused Pakistan of intimidating Jadhav’s family, as his mother's shoes were removed and never returned and she was warned against any “mischievous intent”. 

• The Indian Foreign Ministry also released a statement claiming that the details and circumstances surrounding the alleged confession video were dubious and shrouded and that the proceedings against Mr. Jadhav were not at all transparent. 

The Crisis: ICJ / World Court

• After India approached the ICJ, public hearings from both the parties were presided over by the ICJ President Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf.

• The court indicated to Pakistan that it must take all measures at its disposal to prevent the execution of Jadhav, pending final judgement of the ICJ. 

• Over the course of the next year, the ICJ held another round of public hearings regarding the detention and the trial of Jadhav, in order to deliver an order by July 19th. 

• On July 17th, the ICJ (now formally known as the World Court) ordered Pakistan to review the death penalty given to Jadhav.

• The 16-judge panel said Pakistan has to provide an effective review of the case and added that a “continued stay of execution” for Jadhav was needed for that to happen. 

• The court dismissed Pakistan’s argument by 15 votes to 1 and found that they had breached Jadhav’s rights under Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, by not allowing Indian diplomats to visit him in jail or assist him during his trial. 

• While this may seem like a victory for India, the ICJ did not order the release and acquittal of Jadhav as India had hoped, and Pakistan's attorney general Anwar Mansoor Khan viewed this as a “clear win for Pakistan”. 

• After the decision by the World Court, Pakistan has granted Jadhav counsellor access but the modalities are still to be worked out according to Pakistani laws. 

    - Khrish Shahani