Fisherman dies in Pakistan jail, wife seeks Sushma Swaraj's help

Gujarat-based fisherman's wife has written to the External Affairs Minister requesting to bring back her husband's body from Pakistan. She further asked for a probe into his sudden demise inside the jail.

Vadodara: A Gujarat-based fisherman's wife has written a letter to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj requesting to bring back her husband's body from Pakistan on Tuesday. The woman claims that her spouse died at a jail in Pakistan and further asked for a probe into his sudden demise inside the jail.

The 30-year-old woman, Jivuben Chauhan, is a resident of of Paldi village in Una tehsil of Gir Somnath district. 

In the letter, she says that the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency allegedly arrested her 37-year-old husband Kana Laxman Chauhan and his brother-in-law Kana Govind - both fishermen - near the port of Jakhau in Kutch district few months ago, on charges of violating the country's water territorial boundary in the Arabian Sea, reported the Press Trust of India.

In a recent letter from Govind, who's in the same prison as Chauhan, informed that her husband passed away suddenly inside the Pakistani prison on July 5. She recieved the letter on July 12 through a fisherman from Gir Somnath district, who was allegedly arrested by Pakistani authorities earlier but released on July 9.

She claims that Chauhan never wrote to her about any disease while inside the jail. 

The woman, who has three daughters and two sons, lives with her mother-in-law in a rented property. "I have been working as a labourer at a site to earn our livelihood since the arrest of my husband several months ago," she told PTI. 

She's yet to receive a response from the External Affairs Ministry or the Indian High Commission's office on this matter.

Rajya Sabha lawmaker Parimal Nathwani, from Dwarka in Gir Somnath district, alos requested Swaraj to take up the matter with the Pakistani counterpart and expedite the process of bringing home the body of the fisherman. Gujarat Fishermen Association's senior vice president Veljibhai Masani has also written to Swaraj on the incident.