15 years old FIR in MP may be only lifeline for youth stuck in Pakistan jail

BHOPAL

: A missing person’s FIR filed by his parents around 15 years ago may be the only thing that saves Madhya Pradesh’s runaway youth Jitendra Arjunwar, who is stuck in Pakistan after being arrested for trespassing in August 2012.

A fresh campaign initiated from Bhopal for the 21-year-old’s release has picked up pace in Pakistan. Sources say the Indian embassy has asked for documents to establish his Indian citizenship so that repatriation proceedings can be sped up. The problem is that Jitendra doesn’t have any.

The Pakistan government has not received any document to prove his nationality, that is why they are forced to keep him behind bars despite the completion of his jail term, sources say. Indian diplomats in Pakistan confirmed that they have his name on their records, but are helpless because he doesn’t have any document to prove he is an Indian.

Ministry of external affairs (MEA) officials say they had sent a letter to his residential address in Seoni district of Madhya Pradesh a long time ago, seeking identity documents, but did not get any reply. Jitenddra’s family, however, claims otherwise. “We have not received any letter from the government so far. Please help us bring him home,” says Bharat, his younger brother.

“It’s uncannily identical to that of Karachi runway boy Ramzan, who sneaked into India illegally and was kept at a reform house in Bhopal for a long time before he was deported. We did not have any documents to prove that he was a Pakistan national. It’s the same with Jitendra,” says campaigner Syed Abid Hussain, a Bhopal-based interior designer who started the ‘#Helpjitendra’ campaign on twitter to trace the youth and reunite him with his ailing mother. “All that Pakistan wants is a document to ascertain his nationality,” he told TOI.

Bharat told TOI that Jitendra’s name was removed from the ration card a few years ago. “I only have a family picture and a photocopy of the old ration card that has his name,” said Bharat. But when Jitendra went missing in 2002, their parents had lodged a complaint with Barghat police station in Seoni. “If a copy of that FIR can be proof of his nationality, we will try to get it from the police station,” said Bharat.

Jitendra, who dug his way to Pakistan through the barbed wire on the Rajasthan border, is not a spy or drug addict, but a patient who ‘inadvertently’ crossed over in search of water. He suffers from a critical disease that demands frequent blood transfusions. He was unwell even when he confined to a juvenile prison in Hyderabad, Sindh. Pakistan Rangers say he was arrested on August 12, 2013, tried for violation of Section 14 of Foreigner’s Act, 1946 and convicted.

But he is just not a village lad from an impoverished district of MP. Jitendra is Twitter-savvy. His last tweet reflects his mental agony: “Today, I’m all blind i think my life is over.” Pakistan treated him with compassion, convinced by his defence.

Tracking down the unknown years of Jitendra’s life, TOI had interviewed some of his acquaintances in Mumbai, including Vikrant Anand, who was the fitness trainer of Bollywood star John Abraham. Anand knew him since 2005 and recalls how Jitendra had lost all hope of a bone marrow transplant. To control the spasms, he had begun taking intra-muscular painkiller injections despite objections from doctors.