Indian Chief of Naval Staff (CNS) RK Dhowan on Monday confirmed that RAW officer Kulbhushan Jadhav, who was arrested by Pakistani law enforcement agencies, had served in the Indian navy. "Don't remember anything of him; only know he was in Navy. After that no contact," an Indian news agency quoted Dhowan as saying. Earlier, the Indian government confirmed Jadhav as an Indian citizen but rejected the allegation that he had acted at its behest.
In a video released by the Pakistani authorities last month, Jadhav confessed to having funded Baloch insurgents. He claimed that he was recruited by RAW in 2013, but added that he established "a base" in Iran's Chabahar 10 years earlier, making clandestine journeys to Karachi and Balochistan.
In November 2003, Jadhav obtained a passport (E6934766) from Pune, identifying him by the pseudonym Hussein Mubarak Patel. Born in 1968 (according to the passport), Jadhav joined the National Defence Academy in 1987, and was commissioned as a Naval engineer in 1990.
According to colleagues, he rose to the rank of Commander after 14 years of service. Soon after his arrest in Balochistan province, Pakistan's foreign ministry summoned the Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad to lodge a protest over his illegal entry into Pakistan. It said the man was involved in violence in Balochistan and Karachi.