[11] The Pakistani government stated that he was a commander in the Indian Navy who was involved in subversive activities inside Pakistan and was arrested on 3 March 2016 during a counter-intelligence operation in Balochistan.

It ruled that Pakistan will have to review the entire process of trial and conviction of Kulbhushan Jadhav and provide India with consular access.

After 14 years of service, he was inducted into intelligence operations in 2003 and established a small business in Chabahar in Iran from where he made several undetected visits to Karachi and Balochistan.

[11] Pakistani security forces reported Jadhav as a serving officer in the Indian Navy and stated that he was commissioned to the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India's external intelligence agency.

[32] Pakistan stated that Jadhav entered Chabahar with a visa stamped on a fake passport numbered L9630722 in 2003 where he got a new identity of Hussain Mubarak Patel – born on 30 August 1968, from Maharashtra, India.

[7] Balochistan Home Minister Sarfraz Bugti said that Jadhav was obviously working for RAW and was in contact with Baloch separatists and militants, fueling sectarian violence in the province and the country.

[29] Interrogation also reportedly revealed that naval combat training was being conferred to Baloch separatists, in an attempt to target the ports of Gwadar and Karachi.

[30] Asim Bajwa told the press that Jadhav converted to Islam, adopted a false identity and worked at Gadani under the cover of a scrap dealer.

[34][28] According to him, Jadhav's goal was to sabotage the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor through propaganda – with Gwadar port as a special target – and also to create disharmony among the Baloch nationalist political parties.

[38] Pakistan's diplomat to India said that consular access wasn't automatic during cases related to security, explaining Jadhav had been travelling "under a fake name with an original Indian passport" since 2003.

"[38] Some Indian intelligence officials also alleged that Jadhav was abducted from the Iran–Pakistan border by an extremist radical group called Jaishul Adil.

Jaishul Adil, designated a terrorist organisation by Iran, is linked to Al Qaeda and has been often accused of targeting Iranian border guards.

[16] Indian author and journalist Hussain Zaidi claimed that Jadhav was a spy and may have been arrested by Pakistan's Intelligence Bureau because of complacency setting in, after a stay period of 14 years.

[41] It is alleged that his phone was on surveillance and his habit of talking in Marathi while conversing with his family blew his cover, as it did not commensurate with his fake identity.

[27] Pakistani newspaper The News also noted that no Taliban groups operate in Iran, and stated that Mulack's statement reflected a "poor understanding of the issues and the dynamics of regional politics.

"[27] After Jadhav's sentencing, Mulack told the Times of India that his information was based on "unconfirmed speculation from reliable sources which I cannot identify, nor confirm.

[30][46] According to the Indian newspaper and news channel NDTV, in December 2016, Sartaj Aziz, who functioned as the then Pakistan's Foreign Minister, told members of the country's senate that there was insufficient evidence presented of Jadhav's alleged espionage.

Referring to the video, Bajwa said, "There can be no clearer evidence of Indian interference in Pakistan," and added that Jadhav's activities were nothing short of state-sponsored terrorism.

[36] In the video, Jadhav[36] acknowledged that he launched a covert operation against Pakistan from the Iranian port of Chabahar for which he used to get instructions from Research and Analysis Wing's joint secretary Anil Gupta.

[16] On 3 April, it was reported that Iran was investigating whether Jadhav crossed the Pakistan-Iran border illegally after the matter was taken up by Pakistani officials in Hassan Rouhani's visit to Islamabad.

[17][55][18][56] Jadhav's trial lasted three and a half months and the charges he was convicted for included spying for India, waging war against Pakistan, sponsoring terrorism, and destabilising the state.

"[60] In an interview to India Today, Basit said Pakistan held sufficient evidence against Jadhav and that it was shared with the Indian government.

Sushma Swaraj, India's Minister of External Affairs said there was no evidence of any wrongdoing by Jadhav and termed his sentencing an act of "premeditated murder".

[68] India's Foreign Ministry again dismissed the confession as "false propaganda", stating that Pakistan was trying to influence ICJ proceedings while denying the consular rights to Jadhav.

[72] India moved to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which after deliberation stayed the execution of the sentence passed by the Pakistani military court, the ICJ also found a violation of Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations by Pakistan and directed Pakistan to provide consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav in its July 2019 verdict.