Four childhood friends of Kulbhushan Jadhav, who’s facing death sentence in Pakistan, have been mobilising support in Mumbai for his speedy release.
Mumbai: It’s not just his family, but his friends are also equally concerned about the well-being of Kulbhushan Jadhav, who’s facing the death sentence in Pakistan.
A day before Jadhav’s mother and wife met him in Islamabad, his friends in Mumbai were busy preparing for their next event to garner support for his speedy justice.
“We were shocked to see Kulbhushan in the pictures released yesterday. He looks like he has aged 20 years in just two, and if we were so shocked, I cannot even imagine what his mother and wife must have gone through,” said Tulsidas Pawar, one of Jadhav’s friends.
A software entrepreneur, a grocery store owner, a cable network operator and a paint technologist — all four childhood friends of Jadhav have been organising online and offline events hoping to drum up public support.
All of them are residents of Prithvi Vandan society in Lower Parel, a stone’s throw from the police quarters where Jadhav, the son of a now retired Mumbai police officer, used to live.
“After his arrest in 2016, a local reporter called me to ask about him since I was his childhood friend. That’s when we realised that a few of us can build up support for him and started a ‘Save Kulbhushan’ campaign,” Subroto Mukherjee, who works with Nippon Paint, told ThePrint.
“Initially, we tried to mobilise support within our own building and neighbourhood but didn’t get much response since it’s a sensitive matter,” said Mukherjee who first bonded with Jadhav over their mutual love for football when they were 12. “But over a period of time, the campaign has drawn strong support.”
Jadhav was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court in April earlier this year on the espionage charge.
Pakistan maintains that Jadhav was arrested in Balochistan, near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border while India claims he was kidnapped by Pakistani intelligence from Iran.
Jadhav was allowed to meet his family in Islamabad Monday, first time after his conviction.
A day before his family traveled to Islamabad, Mukherjee, Pawar and two other friends—Arvind Singh and Pravin Bhoj — organised a bike rally and a human chain in Mumbai where about a hundred people turned up to show support for Jadhav.
Since April 2016, the four friends have launched an online signature campaign, conducted pujas, candlelight vigils and so on. Singh, the software entrepreneur, even operates a Facebook page ‘India with Kulbhushan Jadhav.’
“We spent our childhood playing together. We will continue our activities and do everything we can to build pressure on government for his speedy release,” said Singh, describing Jadhav as “the boy who looked most handsome in all our childhood pictures”.
The four friends organised the first candlelight march after Kulbhushan was convicted this year.
“Soon after that, the International Court of Justice stayed his execution and we felt like this was our first victory. We burst firecrackers. We will now plan our next big event when India gets consular access to Jadhav,” Mukherjee said.
The friends say they haven’t met or spoken to Jadhav’s family members so far, as they may have some restrictions on speaking about their son. However, the four friends ensure they keep Jadhav’s parents informed about their activities through text messages so that they know they have the family’s consent.
“Every once in a while, they reply, thanking us for our support. Even we realise we should respect whatever restrictions there may be and give them their space,” said Pawar who runs a grocery store.