New Delhi: The case of eight former Indian Navy officers sentenced to death in Qatar has left more questions than answers. While the exact charges against the men are still shrouded in secrecy, media reports suggest they are accused of spying for Israel on Qatar’s advanced submarines.
The eight men were working for a now-defunct private firm, Dahra Global Technologies and Consultancy Services, when they were detained by the Qatari intelligence service on 30 August 2022 and had been kept in solitary confinement since. Reports claimed that the company provided training and defence services to Qatar’s armed forces.
The owner of the firm, reportedly a retired squadron leader of the Royal Omani Air Force, was arrested along with the Indian officers, but he was released in November last year.
While Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi has confirmed that “the charges were presented as part of the hearings”, these have not yet formally been made public by either the Indian or Qatar governments.
Multiple media reports have claimed that the company, Dahra, was advising the Qatar government on military submarine acquisitions and that the Indian men were accused of espionage for Israel in connection with this programme.
The eight veterans are Captain Navtej Singh Gill, Captain Saurabh Vasisht, Commander Purnendu Tiwari, Captain Birendra Kumar Verma, Commander Sugunakar Pakala, Commander Sanjeev Gupta, Commander Amit Nagpal, and Sailor Ragesh.
The Indian Ministry of External Affairs, in a statement, expressed its “shock” over the sentence.
“We have initial information that the Court of First Instance of Qatar has today passed a judgment in the case involving eight Indian employees of Al Dahra company,” the MEA said. “We are deeply shocked by the verdict of death penalty and are awaiting the detailed judgment. We are in touch with the family members and the legal team, and we are exploring all legal options,” it added.
Qatar is home to about 7 lakh Indian nationals, making up the largest expatriate community in Qatar. Notably, Purnendu Tiwari, who was managing director of the company, received the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman in 2019 for his services in furthering the bilateral relationship between India and Qatar.
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A long ordeal
The Indian Embassy was notified of the Indian men’s arrests in mid-September last year.
On September 30, the detainees were granted a brief phone call with their families, followed by their first consular access on October 3. Subsequently, for the next few months, they were allowed weekly phone calls to their family members.
Speaking during the winter session of Parliament in New Delhi last year in December, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said that it was a “sensitive” matter and that the case was a matter of “priority” to New Delhi.
The last time that Qatar granted consular access was in January, when Indian diplomats and a lawyer met with the eight men in custody.
In April this year, MEA spokesperson Bagchi had conveyed India’s official position that the country would not put “pressure” on Qatar but was keeping a “close watch” on the legal proceedings in the case. The statement had come soon after Congress leader Jairam Ramesh had questioned why Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not actively advocating for the release of the detained former officers.
Last December, ThePrint had spoken to the family members of some the former officers. They had said that their only hope was that the year 2023 would “finally put an end to months of painful waiting”.
Dr Meetu Bhargava and Navdeep Gill, the siblings of Purnendu Tiwari and Navtej Singh Gill respectively, had emphasised that their hopes rested on the government.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)
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