New Delhi: Sunday is a crucial day for the eight Indian Navy veterans sentenced to death in Qatar as a detailed court order will be made available, which will help the Indian authorities decide the best way forward, ThePrint has learnt.
“On Sunday, the detailed order will come and we will decide on the future course of action based on that,” a government source told ThePrint.
While the detailed order will not be made public, it will be available to those involved in the case.
Sources said the way ahead for the eight incarcerated veterans — seven retired officers and a retired sailor — is to approach Qatar’s Court of Appeal next. If that does not work out, then they will have to go to the Court of Cassation.
If all appeals fail, they will need to approach the Emir of Qatar, who has the authority to pardon any prisoner or commute a sentence.
However, the Emir issues pardons only on specific occasions such as Eid and Qatar’s National Day, 18 December.
Sources said Indian officials are in close touch with the Qatari authorities over the matter and are hoping that the appeal process will be completed in time.
“The Qatari agency had arrested them based on suspicion, which could have been fuelled by a certain country inimical to us. Once the proceedings start, it has to go through the law-and-order process of that country just like in India. We are hoping to bring the veterans back and are in close touch with the authorities there,” another source said.
The final hope is that the close bilateral relations between India and Qatar will eventually help bring back the veterans, it is learnt.
Why were veterans detained and arrested?
While the charges against the veterans — Captain Navtej Singh Gill (retd), Captain Saurabh Vasisht (retd), Commander Purnendu Tiwari (retd), Captain Birendra Kumar Verma (retd), Commander Sugunakar Pakala (retd), Commander Sanjeev Gupta (retd), Commander Amit Nagpal (retd), and former sailor Ragesh — have not been made public, sources confirmed that the allegations were with regard to the leaking of sensitive information.
The veterans formerly worked for the private firm Dahra Global Technologies and Consultancy Services, owned by an Omani national who was arrested last year and eventually let off.
The company formerly carried out projects with Qatar’s armed forces.
Sources said that the former Indian Navy officers’ detention by the Qatari Ministry of Interior’s State Security Bureau on 30 August last year was based on suspicion of them having shared some unspecified information with unauthorised people.
This suspicion could have been fuelled by another country inimical to Indian interests but with close ties to Qatar, they added.
The sources refused to get into more details of the suspicion because of the sensitivity of the matter, and underlined that allegations of spying for a third country were strongly refuted.
Incidentally, the Indian defence attaché in Qatar, a naval officer, had returned to India earlier this year, before the completion of his tenure.
Faced solitary confinement & ‘torture’
Sources in the know said that when the eight veterans were picked up in August last year, none of them knew that the others had also been picked up. All were put in solitary confinement for several months.
The sources said that during the confinement, the veterans faced “torture” at the hands of the Qatari intelligence officers. They refused to provide further details about this alleged torture.
However, the eight veterans were given all medical help and medicines for their ailments, ranging from high blood pressure to diabetes, they said.
According to the sources, it was not until Qatar granted consular access to the men last October that each of the veterans learnt that the others had also been arrested.
They remained in solitary confinement till about March this year, and were then put in cells in pairs.
During solitary confinement, the veterans were allowed to step out in the sun during specific times but with no one around. While initially, they were not allowed phone calls, they were eventually given the facility of making two phone calls per week, the sources said, adding that it was in January that the spouses of the veterans were allowed to meet them.
Qatar is home to about 7 lakh Indian nationals, the largest expatriate community in the nation.
Incidentally, incarcerated officer Purnendu Tiwari, who was managing director of Dahra Global, received the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman in 2019 for his services in furthering the bilateral relationship between India and Qatar.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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