After almost 17 months of appeal and spreading awareness about this, actor Celina Jaitly has finally received some relief in order to defend his brother Major Vikrant Jaitly (Retd) who is detained in UAE since 2024. After Tuesday, when the court ordered Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to hire legal help in UAE and prepare defense for her brother, Celina sees a ray of hope.
UAE based legal firm Khalid Almarri Partners and Advocates will be representing the Celina’s brother and will now take the date of appointment to meet him and know the reason why he has been detained.
“This order provides the necessary clarity and mandate to ensure coordinated action,” Celina tells us.
The actor has relentlessly posted about her brother and written to the necessary associations to be able to fight the case and determined to help him.
The actor shares that her love for her brother has been a major driving force, not letting her give up on fighting for him.
“My brother was unable to speak for himself, and I knew that silence would only deepen his vulnerability. Vikrant is my only immediate family after my three sons… Even on days when there was no response, no clarity, and no immediate relief, I was guided by the belief that persistence is often the only way to ensure accountability. As a sister, stepping back was never an option. The conviction that sustained effort, however exhausting, was necessary to protect his rights and dignity is what kept me going,” says the actor.
Vikrant after retiring from the Indian Army shifted to Dubai and co-founded a company with wife Charul Jaitly.
When asked what role Charul has to play in the current state of affairs, Celina says, “There are significant unanswered questions surrounding the sequence of events following my brother being taken. The fact of the matter is that my brother will receive legal representation only today, seventeen months since his abduction, through my petition before the Hon’ble Delhi High Court, to which my sister-in-law is not a party.”
She adds, “That said, given that the matter is sub judice, I am refraining from conjecture. What is essential is that transparency, consistency, and credibility guide the assessment of all actions and omissions in a situation involving a soldier’s liberty in a foreign land.”
Celina got to know about her brother’s detention by his wife a month after the incident took place in September 2024. However,
Celina’s lawyer in India, Raghav Kacker shares the way forward, “Only locals are allowed to appear in court there in Dubai and be part of a criminal defence or of any kind of defence. It could actually be a very simple process of just you know filing certain procedural things and getting him out or it could be something which is a full blown defence we don’t know. I will get clarity after they get the appointment letter and after they get the power of attorney from the Vikrant. The judge has directed that we get access to Vikrant before February 10.”
