External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday dismissed reports that she had sought help from Congress leader Shashi Tharoor to draft a resolution on the matter of Kulbhushan Jadhav, a former Indian Navy officer who has been sentenced to death by Pakistan. The Union minister called the reports “completely false” and “mischievously planted” in the media.
“There is no dearth of talent in my ministry,” the senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader said. “I have the assistance of very able secretaries.”
Swaraj on Tuesday cautioned Pakistan against the consequences its bilateral ties with India will face if it goes through with the death penalty it imposed on Jadhav. A Pakistan military court had sentenced Jadhav to death on charges of spying on the country as an agent of India’s Research and Analysis Wing.
“There is no evidence of any wrongdoing by Kulbhushan Jadhav. This is an act of premeditated murder,” Swaraj said in the Rajya Sabha, adding that the Centre will “go out of the way to save him”.
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