Family members of the eight former Indian Navy officers released from Qatar erupted in joy as they landed in New Delhi early on Monday.
It is learned that all eight men have been released and will be able to live freely with their families in India.
The officers had been arrested in Qatar in connection with an alleged espionage case in 2022.
A family member of one of the eight ex-Navy men said, “Our veterans are back. We are immensely grateful to PM Modi for his personal intervention, and also to the Emir of Qatar for agreeing to their release. We were told about their release and journey back home once they had boarded their flights late last night”.
The Indian nationals, all employees of the Doha-based company Dahra Global, were taken into custody in August 2022. While the charges against them have not been made public by Qatari authorities, they were reportedly charged with spying for Israel.
They were identified as Captain Navtej Singh Gill, Captain Birendra Kumar Verma, Captain Saurabh Vasisht, Commander Amit Nagpal, Commander Purnendu Tiwari, Commander Sugunakar Pakala, Commander Sanjeev Gupta, and Sailor Ragesh.
In December last year, the appellate court in Qatar commuted their death sentence to imprisonment ranging between three years and 25 years. Commander Tiwari, who held a senior leadership position at Dahra Global, was handed the harshest punishment of 25 years. Four were given 15 years in prison, two of them faced 10 years, and the only sailor among the eight men, Ragesh, received the most lenient sentence of three years.
Speaking to the media in the first week of January, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson had said the legal team had been given 60 days to file an appeal. “The legal team has now received a copy of the court order, which is confidential in nature,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal had told reporters then.
“Further, the legal team has been given 60 days to file an appeal in the Court of Cassation, Qatar’s highest court. Our legal team is working on this issue to decide the next course of action, and we are in touch with the families and the legal team,” he had said.
Family members were not aware of how the government managed the release of their kin after that. “We don’t know the details of how this was made possible, just that the Emir has agreed to their release,” said another family member.
Reacting to their release, the MEA said in a statement, “The Government of India welcomes the release of eight Indian nationals working for Dahra Global company who were detained in Qatar. Seven out of the eight of them have returned to India. We appreciate the decision by the Amir of the State of Qatar to enable the release and homecoming of these nationals.”
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