Soldier in Pak jail for 24 years: SC agrees to hear mother's plea

New Delhi: The Supreme Court agreed to hear a plea by the mother of an Army officer, who has been in Pakistan jail for 24 years, demanding the court to direct the Union government to facilitate his release, IANS reported.

When Advocate Saurabh Mishra submitted the plea before the bench of Chief Justice of India NV Ramana with Justices AS Bopanna and Hima Kohli, the court posted a hearing on the matter for April.

The petitioner was 81-year-old Kamla Bhattacharjee, mother of Captain Sanjit Bhattacharjee, who sought directions to the Centre to consider the matter on an urgent humanitarian basis. She claimed that she had heard that Sanjit is lodged in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat jail.

In November 2020, Sanjith's father died, waiting for his son, and in March 2021, the SC had sought a reply from the Centre on the matter.

The petitioner said in April 1997, her family was informed that Bhattacharjee had gone for patrolling duty at night time on a joint border in Gujarat's Rann of Kutch. Later the family was told that he was caught by the Pakistan authorities at the international borders on April 20. Sanjit was commissioned as an officer of the Gorkha Rifles Regiment of the Indian Army in August 1992.

The petitioner's family, in April 2004, received a letter from the Ministry of Defence stating that he was presumed to be dead.

The plea said that the petitioner's son had not been allowed to state his case before the appropriate authority or to communicate with his family members in twenty-three years.