Why Not Fight Like You Fought In Kulbhushan Jadhav's Case? Karnataka High Court To MEA Over Indian Jailed In Saudi Arabia Since 2020

The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday directed the Ministry of External Affairs, to cause diplomatic level interaction so that no prejudice is caused to the Indian Citizen Shailesh Kumar, who has been convicted and lodged in a prison at Saudi Arabia.

Kumar was arrested in 2020 and sentenced to suffer 15 years imprisonment on charges of blasphemy and sedition for having made objectionable posts targeting the King of Saudi Arabia and Islam, on his alleged Facebook account.

A single judge bench of Justice Krishna S Dixit said “The MEA is hereby directed to cause diplomatic level interaction so that the Indian Citizen concerned will not be put to prejudice in a haste, when further investigation is being undertaken by jurisdictional police, with wider resources.”

On going through the affidavit filed by the Ministry on the steps taken by it to secure life and liberty of the detenu, which included communication between the embassies of the countries, he bench said, “They show some amount of care and responsibility by the officials of the Indian embassy. But they give some scope for the argument that the amount of concern in similar cases in general and in the case of Kulbushan’s cases (Kulbhushan Jadhav) in particular is lacking.”

During the hearing the bench observed “Why have you not taken a similar stand as was taken in the Kulbhushan’s (Jadhav) case. You are telling all good things but your conduct is not good with the enormity of the goodness expected of you. Whatever you have done in Kulbhushan’s case, how you structured your case, because your case was that he is an innocent man and he should not be convicted, that's how you fought, why not here?"

It remarked “This is how confidence in the government will be built, not by just advertisements, this that etc.”

Following which the court directed the government to place on record proactive steps taken on the next date of hearing.

The court also recorded the statement of CEN police, Bengaluru that in the shadow of the earlier order, META (Previously Facebook) has cooperated in the investigation process with whatever technical constraints they had of not being able to retrieve the matter from the deleted account.

The directions were given during the hearing of a petition filed by Kavitha Shailesh claiming that her husband Shailesh Kumar was employed in Saudi Arabia. She alleged that Shailesh's Facebook account was hacked and using the same an unknown person posted objectionable content targeting the King of Saudi Arabia and Islam. She claims that she had filed a police complaint in Mangaluru. However, in the meanwhile, the Saudi authorities arrested Shailesh and imprisoned him.

The court suggested to the police to conduct a broad based investigation and not limit it to the alleged Facebook account of the detenu. It directed the police to carry out further investigation in the matter with the assistance of experts/agencies in the field of Information Technology.

It also asked them to prepare the investigation report, on a war footing so that it can be placed before the reviewing court in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to establish the innocence of the Indian detenu and because of which he may be set free.

The court also orally said that police should investigate if this a racket wherein some mischievous person has manoeuvred to inculpate him (detenu) into legal imbroglio taking advantage of him stationing in foreign soil.

It orally said “It appears to be a kind of racket, you have to do something. Nobody abroad will be safe if this is allowed. every stake holder has to be very very vigilant. This can be done to everybody including the judge now. Nobody will be safe. Therefore everybody has to participate and discharge their functions.”

The matter will next be heard on July 17.

Case Title: MRS KAVITHA SHAILESH And Union of India & Others

Case No: WP 22905/2021