Actor and former Miss India Celina Jaitly has issued an appeal on social media, urging the Indian government to secure the safe return of her brother, Major (Retd.) Vikrant Kumar Jaitly, who has reportedly been detained in the UAE for over 14 months.
In a deeply emotional Instagram post, Celina described the last year as an agonising “countdown of fear, hope and unbearable silence,” revealing that her brother was allegedly abducted last September, held incommunicado for eight months, and has since remained in detention “somewhere in the Middle East.”
Also Read | 'Main insaan hoon, patthar nahi': Remembering Dharmendra’s top 10 iconic dialogues
“444 days without my brother,” she wrote, recounting the overwhelming fear of not knowing what he is enduring. “I am waiting to hear his voice, I am waiting to see his face. I dread what they have done to him… A call carrying more pain than words.”
Actor says Indian veterans are becoming ‘easy targets’ abroad
The actor noted that her brother suffers from several service-related injuries and accused foreign entities of increasingly targeting Indian soldiers and veterans abroad. Highlighting what she sees as a rising pattern, Celina questioned whether such incidents pose a risk to national security.
Calling for urgent intervention, she urged the government to take decisive action similar to the efforts that secured the release of Indian naval veterans in Qatar. “Our soldier deserves no less. No Indian soldier deserves less,” she asserted, appealing to citizens not to “let the momentum die.”
In her post, Celina also invoked the memory of her late father, Col VK Jaitly (SM), quoting his words: “If you want to honour a soldier, be an Indian worth dying for.” She vowed not to rest until her brother returns to the soil of the nation he served.
Also Read | 'Terminator ki tarah ghoom rahi hoon': Shraddha Kapoor on Eetha-set Injury
In a separate update from outside the Delhi High Court, Celina expressed cautious optimism after what she called a breakthrough following 14 months of struggle. “You fought for us, bhai… now it’s time for us to stand behind you,” she wrote.
Celina Jaitly, who rose to fame as Femina Miss India 2001 and later 4th runner-up at Miss Universe, made her Bollywood debut in Feroz Khan’s Janasheen.
