Consider giving job to sister of Indian man lodged in Pak jail for 'spying': HC to MHA

The Gujarat High Court today ordered the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to consider giving job on compassionate ground to the sister of a man languishing in Pakistani jail on the charge of being an Indian spy.

Kuldeep Yadav has been languishing in a Lahore jail since 1994 on charge of being an Indian spy.

The division bench of Justices M R Shah and A J Kogje ordered the MHA to consider giving a job to Kuldeep's sister Rekha Yadav within a month on compassionate ground as an exceptional case, after checking her educational qualification.

Rekha Yadav had moved the HC seeking its direction to the Centre to provide her job on the ground that her brother was employed with the Border Security Force (BSF) before he was apprehended by the Pakistani Army on the charge of being an Indian spy.

Nikunt Raval, the lawyer representing the Centre, told reporters that the division bench read the operative part in which it ordered the MHA to consider appointing Rekha on compassionate grounds, even as the detailed order was awaited.

He said the central government had maintained in its submission that there is no evidence like buckle number or record in recruitment to suggest that Kuldeep Yadav was employed with the BSF.

Kuldeep Yadav, who hails from Ahmedabad, was accused by Pakistan of being an Indian spy, and has been languishing in a jail in Lahore.

The Indian High Commission in Islamabad had informed his family members through a letter dated February 1, 2007, that he was kept in Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore.

In a subsequent letter to his lawyer M K Paul, Kuldeep had revealed that he was caught by Pakistan authorities on March 23, 1994 and kept in detention for three years. After that, a military court sentenced him to 25 years in jail and he was shifted to Kot Lakhpat jail.