Gloom, confusion at Silver Oak residence of Kulbhushan Jadhav

A sense of confusion prevails and pall of gloom descended  at the tall imposing Silver Oak apartments at Hiranandini Gardens area at upmarket Powai area of Mumbai, the residence of Kulbhushan Jadhav, the businessman who had been sentenced to death by a military court of Pakistan.

Jadhav, a former Indian Navy officer, has been accused of being an agent of Research & Analysis Wing (RAW), the external intelligence agency of India.

Police security has been tightened around the Silver Oak apartments, where the Jadhav family stays. In fact, Jadhav's father Sudhir Jadhav and uncle Subhash Jadhav retired as Assistant Commissioners of Police of the Mumbai police.

Jadhav, who was living as Hussein Mubarak Patel, was arrested on March 3, 2016 last year through a Counter Intelligence Operation from Balochistan's Mashkel region and he was dubbed as a spy, a claim rejected by the Indian government. Jadhav joined the Indian National Defence Academy in the year 1987 and got into the Indian Navy in 1991. He took premature retirement and became a businessman.

The Jadhav family, who stays at the fifth floor of the building, were unavailable for comments and no one was allowed to reach the residence by the police and society guards.

However, some people, who came out of the building, said that what they had heard was unfortunate. "It is sad...he was a good boy...we are with the family," one of them said.

Another said that while people like JuD founder Hafiz Saeed and underworld don Dawood Ibrahim are safe and given protection in Pakistan an innocent man is being targetted.

Last year on Charge.org a campaign titled 'Save Kulbhushan Jadhav: Bring Him Back' was launched and it stated - "Indeed he is just a common citizen of India, a retired naval officer and now a successful business man. He had been there on a business trip and was trapped by the Pakistan government. We request our government to do all the possible arrangements to bring him back to our country safely. He is neither a RAW agent nor a spy. We want him to be released immediately. We all want him back. To know more about this cross border controversy kindly go through the below links which will give you an idea that how Pakistan has been manipulating the entire issue in its favor".

Jadhav family also had a property at a cooperative society at Panvel in Navi Mumbai. The family hails from Satara district of western Maharashtra.