Mumbai engineer returns from Pak after 5 yrs in jail

Mangalore Today/ ITV

Attari (Amritsar), Oct 25: A Mumbai-based software engineer, who claimed to have inadvertently crossed to Pakistan in 2007 by Samjhauta Express while he was suffering from depression and was jailed there for five years, was today repatriated.

32-year-old Bhavesh Parmar, a resident of Ville Parle area in Mumbai, crossed over to India from the Zero line here and was received by his mother Hansa Kanti and Mumbai MLA Krishna Hegde who helped the family to take up the matter of his repatriation with Indian and Pakistan governments. 

 

After having spent five years in detention in Pakistan’s Kot Lakhpat Jail at Lahore, Bhavesh was given Emergency Travel Certificate by the Indian Embassy in Islamabad to enable him to return to India.

Narrating his ordeal, Bhavesh said “I was detained in Kot Lakhpat Jail after being convicted under the Foreigners Act for want of mandatory travel papers.

 

“I had slipped into depression after the death of my father due to cancer and don’t know how I reached Amritsar, boarded the Pakistan bound Samjhauta Express train and landed in Pakistan territory”.

“I don’t know when I boarded in the Pakistan Bound Samjhauta train and went into deep sleep. I got up when Pakistani officials shook me up after the train reached Pakistan and only then I realised that the train I had boarded was going to Pakistan”, said Bhavesh. 

Till 2008, the family was unaware of his whereabouts until the special branch of Mumbai Police notified them that he was lodged in Pakistani jail.

 

“Ever since Bhavesh went missing in early January 2007, the family had not spoken to him him. I heaved a sigh of relief when I learnt about his release, but I am still awfully worried about his mental health and speedy recovery,” Hansa told reporters at Attari border.

She said that she has no idea whether his son was ever extended psychiatric treatment during the detention period in the Pakistan.

She said Bhavesh was depressed after the death of his father and had left home in a disturbed state of mind.  He had also left his job in a multi-national company, she said, adding that she had spent very tough five years alone in their flat in Mumbai in the absence of her son. 

Hansa and MLA Krishna Hegde pursued the case with Indian and Pakistani authorities for repatriation of Bhavesh whose prison term ended in July this year.