Members of the BJP women’s wing take out a rally for Sarabjit in Patna on Thursday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, May 2: The attack on Sarabjit Singh in a Pakistan jail and his subsequent death has sent shockwaves among the parents of Sitamarhi resident Ranjeet Kumar Thakur.

The parents of Ranjeet, who is lodged in a Lahore jail for several years, have sent an SOS to the Centre through Sitamarhi district magistrate Pratima S. Verma. The petition demanded immediate handing over of Ranjeet to India.

Ranjeet’s mother Sheela Devi (70) and her husband Baliram Thakur (75) submitted the petition to Verma at her janata durbar on Thursday stating that they apprehended that their second son might have to meet the same fate as Sarabjit. “I hope that the government initiates appropriate action in this regard,” Sheela said.

Ranjeet had been missing for the past two decades. The parents got the shock of their lives when they were told by a Pupri (Sitamarhi) police team last year that their son was languishing in a Pakistan jail for crossing over the country’s boundary and violating visa norms.

The Pupri police officer showed the photograph of a youth named Ram Babu Sahay, a resident of Munharawa village, about 30km east of Sitamarhi town. Initially, the parents did not recognise the man in question but they later claimed that it was their second son Ranjeet, who had gone to Mumbai in search of a job.

The matter came to light when a letter issued by the ministry of home affairs reached Pupri police station in October last year. The letter was issued by the Lahore jail on June 12, 2012.

Thakur said Ranjeet had left the village at the age of 14. He was in touch with the family for two years but later they had no information about his whereabouts, he said. Ranjeet’s elder brother Harsheed is working as a daily wage earner while his younger brother Sanjiv helps their father with agricultural work. However, it is still a mystery how Ranjeet reached Pakistan and landed in a jail there.

Subsequently, an inquiry was conducted jointly by Daya Nidhan Pandey, who was district magistrate then, and Vivek Kumar, who was superintendent of police then. The report was also submitted to the state government.