SC to consider plea by mother of soldier missing since 1997 and lodged in Pakistan Jail

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to consider in April a plea by the 82-year-old mother of Captain Sanjit Bhattacharjee of Gorkha Rifles, for the release of her son from Kot Lakhpat Central Jail in Lahore in Pakistan, after he went missing from Rann of Kutch in Rajasthan 25 years ago.

A bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices A S Bopanna and Hima Kohli decided to take up the matter next month after an oral mentioning made by advocate Sourabh Mishra on behalf of the petitioner, Kamala Bhattacharjee

The counsel said the top court had issued notice to the Union government in March 2021 but the matter was yet to come up for hearing.

While issuing notice to the Centre on her plea, the top court also asked her counsel to collect information about other similar cases.

In her plea, Bhattacharjee said the last 24 years have been traumatic for her. She has been fighting an endless battle to have one sight of her son, an Indian Army officer, who she believed was languishing in a Kot Lakhpat Central Jail in Lahore in Pakistan.

The grieving mother said she is fighting a lonely fight, after she lost her husband in November 2020.

According to the plea, Sanjit went for patrolling from April 14-19, 1997, along with members at night time on a joint border in the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat and Pakistan. However, the next day, 20 April, 1997, only 15 platoon members returned without the petitioner’s son and another platoon member, Lance Naik Ram Bahadur Thapa.

Both the petitioner's son and the other person were said to have gone missing in suspicious circumstances. The petitioner claimed to have got a copy of a radio intercept confirming that her son was captured by Pakistan Rangers and thereafter he was handed over to the Pakistan Army.

In 2004, the petitioner’s family received a letter from the Ministry of Defence saying her son was presumed to be dead.

However, on one fine day, the petitioner received a vital piece of information stating that her son was held in captivity in Kot Lakhpat Jail also known as Central Jail Lahore, Pakistan.

The petitioner immediately requested the Ministry of Defence to extract further information. However, they received a response that no fresh developments were recorded in this matter.

“The respondent appears to have disowned the brave hearts exiling or missing and has demonstrated a high degree of negligence in conducting a result-oriented search. Such act is also prohibited under Article nine of the United Nations Declaration," the plea stated.

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