'Disappointed and depressed' with ill-treatment in Pakistan, say Kulbhushan Jadhav's wife and mother

A close relative of Kulbhushan Jadhav has said that the latter's family was "even more depressed" than it had been before their visit to Pakistan.

Mumbai: The wife and mother of Kulbhushan Jadhav, the former Indian Navy officer who has been given a death sentence in Pakistan, are very depressed with the kind of treatment meted out to them by the authorities there during their visit to the neighbouring country earlier this week.

A close relative of Jadhav said that the latter's family was "even more depressed" than it had been before the visit.

"We are very disappointed and not in a mood to speak on the family's Pakistan visit," the relative was quoted as saying by PTI.

"I can't talk more as this is an international issue and is being handled by the Indian government. If we speak something about it, that may hamper the process," he added.

Jadhav's mother Avanti and wife Chetna were in Pakistan recently to meet him, but the meeting took place with them being separated by a glass screen.

The treatment received by Kulbhushan's mother and wife from Pakistan was not good at all, the relative said. "We are even more depressed now than we were before the visit," he added.

The relative said he was "horrified" on learning that Pakistani officials had removed 'mangalsutra' and bangles of Jadhav's kin before allowing them to meet him.

"Even the 'bindi' on the forehead of Kulbhushan's wife was not seen while they were meeting him," he said.

The meeting between Jadhav, his mother and wife took place on Monday (December 25) at the Pakistani Foreign Affairs Ministry in Islamabad after repeated requests by India for family access.

The meeting came nearly eight months after Jadhav was awarded the death sentence by a Pakistani military court for alleged spying.

Jadhav, who is languishing in a Pakistani jail, met his family for the first time across a glass screen, through an intercom. 

The 40-minute interaction was recorded and tweeted by the Pakistan Government. 

The alleged ill-treatment to Jadhav's kin evoked a sharp response from the Indian government, which alleged that both women were forced by Pakistani officials to change their clothes and asked to remove their bangles, 'bindi' and 'mangalsutra'.

Jadhav's wife Chetankul was forced to remove her shoes, which were not returned at all. Pakistan later claimed that her shoes had "something metallic in them".

The Narendra Modi government accused Pakistan of violating mutual understanding on Jadhav's meeting with his family and said the Indian national appeared coerced and under considerable stress during the tightly-controlled interaction.

Amid widespread condemnation and outrage, the Narendra Modi government will now make a statement in Parliament on the issue on Thursday.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will make a statement in Lok Sabha, clarifying the NDA government's stand on the issue tomorrow.

The Government of India had earlier rejected Pakistan's charge that Jadhav was its spy as ''concocted'''and ''baseless.''

(With Agency inputs)