India yet to get charge sheet and judgement on Jadhav case

India has not received the certified copies of the charge sheet and the orders of a Pakistan military court, awarding death sentence to former Navy officer Kulbhusan Jadhav, almost 48 hours after making the official request.
 
The Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Gopal Bagley on Sunday said that the government was yet to receive those documents, which are essential to prepare Jadhav legal defence in Pakistan's Supreme Court.
 
The request was made by Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad, Gautam Bambawale on Friday afternoon when he met Pakistan foreign secretary Tehmina Janjua. He also sought consular access to Jadhav for the 14th time even though Pakistan denied every Indian requests so far.
 
Indian officials said the top brass of the government was in touch with Jadhav's family, but copies of the charge sheet and the court ruling were required to file an appeal in the higher judiciary in Pakistan.
 
Last week, Islamabad announced that a military court had convicted Jadhav of working for India's external intelligence unit, Research and Analytical Wing, and being involved with “espionage and sabotage” attempts to destabilise Pakistan. The death sentence was later confirmed by Pakistan army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa. Paksitan Army had released a confessional video of Jadhav.
 
After Bambawala's meeting with Tehmina, Pakistan Prime Minister's advisor Sartaj Aziz issued a statement detailing some of the charges against the Indian veteran. Aziz said the conviction was based on “specific and credible” evidence.
 
The former Pakistan's diplomat, however, took an opposite stand in Pakistan senate in December when he said that evidence against Jadhav was “not conclusive”.
 
Meanwhile, the two neighbours have pressed the pause button on their bilateral engagement with the cancellation of a pre-scheduled meeting between Indian Coast Guard and Pakistan Maritime Security Agency. A technical meeting between the two commissioners on Indus Water Treaty too was shelved.
 
Neither the Indian Coast Guard not the Ministry of External Affairs said anything on record on the dialogue between the two coast guarding forces. The meeting that was to start from Monday would have come in the backdrop of Indian Coast Guard rescuing two PMSA personnel off Gujarat coast after their boat met with an accident.
 
The technical meeting on Indus Water Treaty in Washington was an idea from the World Bank, which is mediating between the two nations to sort out the crisis. Both appears to have been cancelled at the moment, even though there is no official word on them.