Kuldeep Yadav (foreground) with sister Rekha and brother Dileep. Nirmal HarindranKuldeep Yadav, 59, stares at the smartphone, trying to figure how it works. It has been seven days since Yadav returned home in Ahmedabad after 28 years of incarceration in Pakistan on espionage charges. The world around him has changed beyond his last memory.
Out of touch with his family since 2013 when Indian nationals in Pakistan prisons were subjected to different rules and separated, following Sarabjit Singh’s death, the family has been catching up with each other since Yadav came back on the night of August 25.
At his home in Ahmedabad, Yadav with a lean frame, dressed in a Pathan suit, says, “I’m still getting adjusted… Had I not been picked by my family on reaching Ahmedabad, I would have been lost. I can’t recognise the streets outside our house. There are children in the family I’ve never seen before. I don’t know how these (smart) phones work and I’ve to ask Dileep (Kuldeep’s 55-year-old younger brother) every time to turn the screen on.”
Dileep adds that he last met Kuldeep during Holi festival in 1990.
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While Kuldeep and his family do not wish to talk of the time before his incarceraton, Gujarat HC records, based on submissions made by his sister in a petition, suggest that Yadav was “recruited by BSF for RAW military intelligence in the year 1991 at Ahmedabad… he was deputed in New Delhi and thereafter was sent to Pakistan… was arrested in Pakistan on 22.06.1994. He was interrogated for 30 months… thereafter, he was sentenced to 25-year imprisonment by Court Martial Military Court of Pakistan…”
Yadav says the sentence was imposed on October 27, 1996, and he was ideally supposed to be released on October 26, 2021. “For release of Indians from Pakistan jail, the prisoner has to provide the address of return in India on completion of imprisonment. It is checked and vetted by the Embassy and once India gives clearance, it is conveyed to the Pakistan authorities. The Supreme Court of Pakistan then gives a date for appearance of the prisoner,” according to Yadav.
“I was presented before the court on June 24, 2022, and was ordered to be released. This order is then sent to the Pakistan authorities, who send it to the Indian embassy,” he says. The paperwork kept Yadav in the jail for an additional 10 months.
Since 2013, Indian prisoners were cut off from the rest of the world. The India-Pakistan Judicial Committee on Prisoners, comprising retired judges from India and Pakistan, visited jails in Karachi, Rawalpindi and Lahore between April 26 and May 1, 2013, as well as Jinnah Hospital, Lahore, where Sarabjit was admitted following an assault by fellow inmates. Following their visit, Indian prisoners facing espionage charges were separated and housed at different cells.
“Sarabjit was a good friend but our barracks were different as he was facing death sentence. Earlier, there was a provision where a prisoner could request to meet other prisoners in 15 days… He would often ask for me. However, this changed after Sarabjit’s death… All form of correspondence stopped and I could not write any letter home… On the other side, food got better and medical facilities also improved,” he says.
Sarabjit, who was sentenced to death on charges of terrorism and spying, died a few days after being attacked by fellow inmates, in May 2013.
Yadav says there were no access to books and sometimes work in prison doubled up as fitness exercises. “There was limited access to news with DD and PTV… It would really make us happy when we would see news of talks between the two countries but at the end we would see no impact on the ground or on our lives. Indian prisoners wrote repeatedly to the Indian Embassy in Pakistan seeking financial assistance and our release but never got any response. We also wrote to Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Manmohan Singh and Narendra Modi. We also requested for legal representation to update us about the case,” he says.
Dileep speaks of a similar struggle in his attempts with representation to various Indian authorities over the years, including representations to union home ministers, exernal affairs ministers, prime ministers, chief ministers and presidents of India.
The news of the demise of Kuldeep’s father, Nanakchand, in November 1999 reached Kuldeep only in August 2000, with several letters sent by his family never reaching him. Dileep took voluntary retirement from BSF service as the family felt financial strain.
In 2007, Kuldeep’s mother Mayadevi, along with four of Kuldeep’s siblings, moved the Gujarat HC seeking a directive to the Ministry of External Affairs to take up Kuldeep’s release from Kot Lakhpat Jail with Pakistan and seeking Rs 5 lakh interim compensation.
In April 2008, the Gujarat HC awarded the compensation and in 2014, it requested the Pakistani authorities to “consider the appeal of the petitioner…” for release. Mayadevi died in 2011.
In 2014, Kuldeep’s sister Rekha moved the Gujarat HC seeking ex gratia and additional compensation of Rs 5 lakh. A division bench in June 2018 directed the government authorities to consider Rekha for “appointment on compassionate ground… as an exceptional case”. She is now working as a nurse with the BSF in Jodhpur, after receiving the appointment in December 2018.