‘Spies’ who return from Pak jails fight to survive back home

With their ‘cover’ blown, they were disowned by the intelligence agencies they once worked for and were left with no means to support themselves and their families.

David Masih, Danial Masih and Sunil Bhola live on the same street at Dadwan, a village in Gurdaspur known to be home of ‘veteran spies’.

David, 51, was arrested in Pakistan on charges of spying in 1999 and was released in 2006. He suffers from paralysis and lies on a cot in a tiny room built in the backyard of his house.

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“Once a political leader had come to my house while I was still lodged in a Pakistan jail. He had given school uniforms to my four children. This is all I have got for my services to the country,” he said.

Several men, living in abject poverty, let on that they had also worked as ‘spies’. Most come from poor Christian families whose hopes were raised when Sarabjit Singh’s story hit the headlines.

Sarabjit, who languished at Lahore’s Lok Kotophat Jail for more than two decades and faced death penalty for spying and terrorism, was killed by fellow inmates in April 2013.

“We thought that if the government can give Rs 1 crore to Sarabjit’s family along with a job to his daughter, then it would at least provide basic amenities to us to live a respectful life. But our hopes have diminished,” said David.

Sunil Bhola, who was released by Pakistan in 2013, lost his cool after seeing the lensman of The Indian Express and said no interview to any media house could change his fate.

“Before sending me on a mission in 1989, I was told that the government will make sure that my four daughters are married off. Nobody bothered. I was arrested in 1999 and came back in 2013 after spending 14 years behind bars. Even now nobody is bothered,” he said angrily.

Danial, 47, has been earning a living as a rickshawpuller ever since he was released in 1997. He had started working for RAW in 1992 and was arrested in Pakistan in 1994.

“They promised me a good life. But their promises equalled just Rs 15,000 that was given to me after I returned from Pakistan in 1997,” he said.

On the same street lives Ramesh Masih, son of Satpal Masih, who has not washed the blood on the Tricolour which was used to cover the body of his father Satpal Masih after it was brought from Pakistan.

“The story of my father is the same as that of Sarabjit. My father was also a spy and he was beaten to death. He was the first spy whose body came back in 2000. We are surprised as to why we have been treated differently from Sarabjit’s family,” said Ramesh, a painter by profession.

“I have wasted my life for the country. And now this is how people treat us,” said Ashok Kumar in a choked voice. He works as a security guard at a cloth merchant’s shop and had gone to Pakistan at the age of 22 in 1997. He returned when he was 41 after serving his sentence and has not been able to find a suitable match for him.

In fact, spending their youth in Pakistani jails carries a major stigma for these men.

Ashok Kumar from Dadwan village, who couldn’t marry after his return from Pakistan jail, committed suicide at his home in Dadwan in 2007.

Gurbaksh Lal from Ferozepur, too, has not been able to get a match.

The case of 60-year-old Karmat Rahi is somewhat different as he claims to be a Pakistani citizen. “I came to India in 1980 along with my mother and was lured into espionage by RAW. I started spying for India and was arrested in 1983. Pakistan was not ready to release me; they would keep dropping my name from the list of prisoners to be set free. Finally, it was Captain Amarinder Singh who convinced Pakistani officials to release me during his visit to Pakistan in 2004,” he said.

Attempts of these ‘spies’ to seek relief from the courts have also drawn a naught.

Chandigarh-based advocate Ranjan Lakhanpal has filed over 40 petitions on behalf of such people free of cost in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, seeking compensation and jobs for their kin on account of their sufferings in Pakistan prisons.

In Karmat Rahi’s case, the union government replied that after examining the matter in consultation with security and intelligence agencies, it is denied that “Union of India has any association with the petitioner” or “petitioner was ever recruited”.

In its remarks, while dismissing the petition moved by Rahi, the High Court remarked, “The (government) stand is correct as it is not expected, nor can it be accepted that a spy can be recruited for being deputed to other country.”

Lakhanpal says that sentences of such people, who are recruited by intelligence agencies in their 20s by targeting their poverty, emotions or patriotism, vary from 14 to 25 years for espionage under the Pakistan Official Secrets Act.

“BJP and RSS favour saying Bharat Mata Ki Jai. Are they not Bharatiya who were serving Bharat Mata? They are heroes of the country,” said the advocate. “They were promised moon. But the tragedy is that if the government cannot officially accept them as spies, they can at least pay them something for their survival.”

Similarly, the petition moved by Kashmir Singh of Nangar Choran village in Hoshiarpur district, who was arrested in Pakistan in 1973 during one of his trips and came back to India after 35 years in March 2008, was dismissed by the High Court on August 25, 2008.

A petition filed by Jaswant Singh, son of spy Balbir Singh of Gali Joga Singh in Amritsar, was also dismissed by the High Court on July 14, 2014. Balbir Singh was caught while ‘spying’ in Pakistan in 1974 and was released from Central Jail, Bahawalpur, in 1986.

One such case still going on in the High Court is of Kishori Lal Sharma — who was known as Mohd Salim in Pakistan. A resident of Bhai Randhir Singh Nagar, Ludhiana, he has submitted that after joining Military Intelligence in December 1965 at Jalandhar Cantt, he was sent to Pakistan for collecting vital information about T-54 Chinese Tanks and long- range guns supplied by China to Pakistan Army in those days. He was arrested by Pakistan Field Intelligence unit at Kasur in Pakistan on September 18, 1966, sentenced to 10 years in jail, and was finally released from Central Jail, Mianwali, on September 18, 1974, where, he said, he was subjected to inhuman torture.

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