Highlights
- Actor says her brother has been held in the UAE for 17 months without clear charges
- Legal details emerged only after a habeas corpus plea in the Delhi High Court
- Jaitly left an abusive marriage and returned to India to pursue the case
For Celina Jaitly, the story told in the 2024 thriller Jigra feels uncomfortably close to home. While the film shows a sister risking everything to save her brother from a death sentence abroad, Jaitly has been fighting a real and prolonged battle to free her own brother from detention in the United Arab Emirates.
‘I thought it was a prank’
In an interview with PTI, Jaitly said her brother, Major (Retd) Vikrant Kumar Jaitly, has been under what she describes as arbitrary detention for the past 17 months. A retired Special Forces officer and former UN peacekeeper, he was reportedly picked up from a mall in September 2024.
Living in Austria at the time, Jaitly said she initially did not believe the phone call informing her of his detention. “For an hour, I dismissed it as one of his jokes,” she recalled. For nearly nine months afterwards, she said there was no formal arrest on record, no confirmed location and no access to legal counsel.
A crisis layered on personal collapse
The news came during a period of deep personal distress. Jaitly said she was in an abusive marriage in Austria, a situation she endured for years for the sake of her children.
She said she had stepped away from her acting career for more than 15 years, trusting her partner with finances and property. Over time, she lost access to both her assets and her three sons.
Jaitly, who won Femina Miss India in 2001 and was fourth runner-up at Miss Universe the same year, had previously built a successful film career with titles such as No Entry, Apna Sapna Money Money, Golmaal Returns, Zinda and Thank You, along with the acclaimed short film Seasons Greeting.
Leaving overnight to fight back
Standing up for her brother, she said, required breaking free from her own circumstances. Jaitly left Austria in the middle of the night with little money, purchasing a ticket on a credit card and returning to India.
She said many friends and relatives avoided the issue once she reached out for help, describing the subject as taboo. “In my darkest hour, I realised I had neither friends nor family in my immediate circle,” she said, adding that support instead came from strangers.
Legal route brings first answers
Back in Mumbai, Jaitly said she had to seek a court injunction to enter her own home, alleging her estranged husband was attempting to sell the property without her consent.
With diplomatic channels offering no clarity on her brother’s whereabouts, she approached the Delhi High Court with a writ of habeas corpus. It was only after the petition that authorities shared a prosecution number and confirmed his location.
“All I was told was a vague title of ‘national security’,” she said, adding that no specific charges had been explained.
Still waiting for clarity
According to Jaitly, her brother had joined his wife’s company in the Middle East after retiring from the Army. The firm, Matiti Group, operates across sectors including information technology, cyber security, risk management and HR services.
In mid-2025, legal and grievance channels confirmed that Vikrant had been moved to Al Wathba detention centre in Abu Dhabi. The Delhi High Court has since allowed a UAE-based law firm to represent him, a development Jaitly has described as a long-awaited breakthrough.
Sharing the update on social media, she received public backing from several figures in the film industry, including actor Preity Zinta.
Calling herself a fourth-generation armed forces daughter, Jaitly said she has taken the issue to the highest levels of Indian leadership, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “My brother is an Indian soldier,” she said. “He cannot be left in arbitrary detention.”
For Jaitly, the battle is no longer symbolic or cinematic. It is a daily test of resolve, fought far from the spotlight.
