‘Come tomorrow for Re 1 fee’: Swaraj told Harish Salve; died an hour later
Sushma Swaraj had asked Harish Salve to take his fee of Re 1 on Wednesday, underlining the emotion that she invested the case to rescue Kulbhushan Jadhav from death row in Pakistan.
Sushma Swaraj, former external affairs minister, who died Tuesday night had asked Harish Salve, one of India’s top lawyers who represented the country at the International Court of Justice in the case against Pakistan involving Kulbhushan Jadhav, to collect his fee of Re 1 that he had charged for the case.
Salve told Times Now that he had spoken to Swaraj about an hour before she died.
“I spoke to her at 8:50 pm. It was a very emotional conversation…. She said I have to come and meet me. I have to give you your one rupee for the case which you won. I said of course I have to come collect that precious fee. She said come tomorrow at 6 o’clock,” Salve said.
Last month, the International Court of Justice ruled that Pakistan had violated former Indian naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav’s right to consular access and called for a review of the death sentence handed to him by a military court at an appropriate forum of Islamabad’s choice.
In a ruling seen as a significant victory for India’s efforts to prevent the execution of the 49-year-old, the UN’s principal court ruled that a continued stay of Jadhav’s death sentence was an “indispensable condition” for an effective “review and reconsideration” of his conviction.
Sushma Swaraj had described the verdict of the International Court of Justice as a great victory for India.
