Jadhav: Cong condemns Pak's 'kangaroo court' justice

The Congress today condemned Pakistan for the death sentence awarded to Indian citizen Kulbhushan Jadhav after a "kangaroo trial" and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to mount diplomatic pressure on Islamabad to secure his release.
Congress' senior spokesperson P Chidambaram said the world knows that "sham justice" was meted out to Jadhav.
"We condemn what has happened in Pakistan and we hope that good sense will prevail and the death sentence imposed by this sham tribunal will not be carried out," he told reporters, with the fervent hope that Jadhav is still alive.
Congress' head of communication department Randeep Singh Surjewala said, "Death sentence is a deliberate provocation to India. BJP Government needs to travel beyond advisories. The PM must intervene to secure his release."

He said India needs to immediately mount an international diplomatic offensive to free Jadhav, who was given a death sentence by a Pakistani military tribunal for "espionage and sabotage activities" in restive Balochistan province and Karachi city.
Chidambaram recalled a statement by Pakistan PM's advisor on foreign affairs Sartaz Aziz in December last year where he said that there is not enough evidence to proceed against Jadhav.

"Now from a statement which says that there is not enough evidence to legally proceed against Kulbhushan, to a death penalty given by a military tribunal whose jurisdiction to try an unarmed foreigner is seriously in doubt, is a huge leap," he said.

Noting that the world knows this was a "kangaroo trial", if a trial took place at all, he said, "the so-called justice meted out to Kulbhushan is sham justice".
"The whole nation condemns Pakistan for going through this mock or kangaroo trial and inflicting the maximum penalty upon an admitted Indian citizen," he said.
Jadhav as per reports was perhaps abducted from a third country and not arrested in territory controlled by Pakistan, he said.
To a question if this was failure on the part of the central government, Chidambaram said that it would be too strong a statement.
"I am sure they must have made efforts. I do not know. But if they have made efforts, I am sure they will tell Parliament what efforts they made.

"They should tell Parliament what efforts they made," he said, adding that his concern was that the maximum penalty imposed on the Indian should not be carried out.
Attacking Pakistan for conducting a "hurried" trial of Jadhav without prior notice to India, Surjewala said the development was symptomatic of "Pakistan's kangaroo court justice".
He also cited media reports about Aziz's statement in his country's Senate that there was "insufficient evidence against Jadhav".
"Will PM pickup the phone & tell Pak about the falsehood of case against Kulbhushan Jadhav as admitted by Sartaj Aziz? (sic)," Surjewala's tweet accompanying a media report on Aziz's statement read.