The Centre on Friday informed the Supreme Court that at least 10 Indian citizens who had gone to Russia, mostly for jobs, had died while fighting for that country in its ongoing war with Ukraine.
The 10 deceased are part of a group of 26 people whose family members had filed a joint petition before the top court seeking their safe return to India.
One among the remaining 16 Indians is currently lodged in a prison in Russia on criminal charges, while another had voluntarily opted to fight the war, the Centre told the top court.
In all, 215 Indian nationals had gone to Russia, mostly from Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, through agents.
The disclosure was made by additional solicitor-general Aishwarya Bhatti to a bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, which had on April 10 issued notice to the Centre on a habeas corpus plea filed by families of the 26 Indians said to be stranded in Russia and allegedly compelled to participate in the war with Ukraine.
The families had alleged that the Indians had gone to Russia for education and jobs, but some were now being compelled to fight in the war.
On Friday, Bhati told the bench, also comprising Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M. Pancholi, that the Centre had made an all-out effort to assist the affected families, including bringing back the mortal remains, but had been facing non-cooperation from some of the families.
“We have established contact and communication with the parents and family members of each one of the 215 Indian citizens, but unfortunately in some cases the families are not cooperating. In one case, a family had asked us to keep the mortal remains with us, saying ‘you keep the mortal remains, we will take recourse to legal action,” Bhatti submitted.
The government law officer said some of the Indian citizens had voluntarily entered into job contracts with recruiting agents, but some other applicants were tricked into contracts and finally forced to fight the war.
However, the Centre’s arguments were rebutted by the counsel appearing for the petitioners, who submitted that it was not a case of “inaction” by the government, “but total non-cooperation”.
He alleged that despite over 120 representations to the Centre, particularly the external affairs ministry, the authorities had not shown any seriousness in resolving the problem. The counsel complained that despite repeated requests, the authorities did not take any steps to bring back the mortal remains of the victims.
“They did not even follow our advice for conducting DNA tests on the samples…,” he submitted.
However, the CJI said it might not be easy to collect DNA samples in the war zone. “It is a very complex task to get DNA samples in such cases,” the CJI observed.