Chandu Chavan, bearing injuries on his fingers, with his grandfather Dhondhu in Amritsar

PUNE: Indian soldier Chandu Chavan , who was recently released by Pakistan after he had strayed into that country in September last year, has said he was brutally tortured and regularly injected with drugs during his four-month captivity.

Chavan (22) revealed this to his family members when they met him after his release at a military hospital in Amritsar on Sunday. His brother Bhushan, who is also an army jawan posted at Jamnagar in Gujarat, his grandfather Dhondhu and sister’s husband Chetan Patil met him at the hospital.

Speaking to TOI over the phone, Bhushan said, “Chandu told us that he was beaten and tortured severely by the Pakistani soldiers during his captivity. They used to inject some drugs into his body regularly. They were quite persistent while trying to get details about his reason for crossing the Line of Control (LoC). Besides, they were trying to get information about the creation of the Indian Army ’s base along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir.” Bhushan said his brother has multiple injuries on his body, especially on the fingers of his right hand. “He also has minor injuries on his face and is struggling to walk. He told us that he could not remember many things clearly due to the effect of the drugs. They also did not give him adequate food,” he said.

The hour-long meeting between Chavan and his family was an emotional one. “We were meeting Chandu after almost four months. He recognised us at once and hugged my grandfather. He was crying and could not believe he was meeting us,” Bhushan recalled. As news of Chavan’s capture trickled in on September 30, his grandmother Leelabai died of shock at their family home in Bhorvihir village in Dhule district. “Chandu was very close to our grandmother and he soon asked about her. We had to tell him the truth that she was no more,” Bhushan said.

Commenting on the torture inflicted on Chavan by Pakistan, minister of state for defence Subhash Bhamre said, “What else can we expect from Pakistan? Though I have personally not seen Chavan’s injuries, we cannot rule out the possibility of his torture.”

Bhamre, who had facilitated Chavan’s meeting with his family members, refused to comment when specifically asked whether the Indian government would take up the soldier’s torture with Pakistan. “It will not be appropriate to comment on this aspect at this juncture. The army has its own internal system and we should not interfere in their functioning,” he said.

“Our first priority is to take care of his health, which the army is doing. I have been told that Chavan is under extreme mental trauma,” he said.

