MP cops pool Rs 10,000 for Jitendra Arjunwar’s brother

BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh police went out of their way on Wednesday to help runaway lad Jitendra Arjunwar’s younger brother Bharat after they came to know that he was going to Wagah border to receive him with just Rs 300 in his pocket.
Police officers immediately pooled together Rs 10,000 and sent an assistant sub inspector (ASI) along to escort him till the border. TOI had reported on May 1 how Pakistan has set May 4 as the date for Jitendra’s release.
Bharat is the sole earning member of the Arjunwar family since his father passed away many years ago. He earns his livelihood from a small motorcycle garage and takes care of his ailing mother and sister. All of them have been desperately waiting for Jitendra’s homecoming. Officials contacted Bharat on Wednesday and asked him to go to Wagah to receive Jitendra.

“Bharat came to us today and said he was ready to go to Wagah. When we asked how much money he had, he took out Rs 300 from his pocket. With that much, he would not have made it till Nagpur,” said Seoni ASP Gopal Khandel, adding: “We somehow arranged Rs 10,000 for him and deployed an ASI to escort him.”
Realizing that Jitendra is a sickle cell anaemia, Khandel said that they will admit him at a hospital in Chandigarh for a few days if he isn’t well. “We will bring him here after doctors’ approval,” he said.
Jitendra’s mother Parvati and sister Karuna are eagerly waiting for his arrival. “Let him come, we will cook his favourite dishes,” Karuna said. Jitendra’s disabled mother had begun a fast unto death, demanding his son’s release.
Jitendra, a resident of Barghat village in Seoni, accidentally strayed into Pakistan and was arrested by the Rangers on August 12, 2012. He was sentenced to jail but as stuck in Pakistan despite finishing his prison term because of a delay in establishing him as an Indian.