India-Qatar News: Qatar is home to 100 nationalities who are famous for its oil reserves, natural gas and last year hosted FIFA WORLD CUP 2022. After 2022, Qatar is in the news again and the reason is directly affecting every citizen of India. Qatar has given the death penalty to eight former Indian Navy personnel.
THE CASE:
The case came for hearing for the first time in August 2022, when the eight men were arrested in an alleged case of espionage.These men include decorated officers of the Indian Navy who were working for Dahra Global Technologies and Consultancy Services owned by a retired member of the Royal Omani Air Force. Dahra is specialised for providing complete Support Solutions to the Aerospace, Defense, Information Technology & Communications sectors. It is a private firm that provides training and related services to Qatar’s armed forces. They were working on a highly sensitive project which was, Italian technology based midget submarines with stealth characteristics. Those sentenced are, Cdr Purnendu Tiwari,Sailor Ragesh, Capt Saurabh Vasisht, Cdr Amit Nagpal, Capt Navtej Singh Gill, Cdr Sugunakar Pakala, Cdr Sanjeev Gupta and Birendra Kumar Verma.
THE PROCEEDINGS:
The charges mentioned in the hearing against them have not been made public either by the Qatari government or the Indian government. This has led many to believe that it was a security-related matter.Qatar’s intelligence agency, the State Security Bureau had already arrested them and the Indian Embassy was informed about it in mid-September. The owner of the firm was also arrested but was released in November last year. On September 30, those men were permitted to speak to their families but briefly. The first access to the consular was granted last year in October. The men went to trial in March but their bail pleas were rejected numerous times and their detention was extended by Qatari authorities. Recently, the verdict of death sentences was passed for all eight men accused of spying by the Qatari authorities.
INDIA’S ACTION:
The Government of India on Thursday expressed that they are deeply shocked by the verdict of the death penalty and are awaiting for the detailed judgement sheet and they are in direct contact with the family members of those eight personnel and the legal panel. They also claimed to attach high importance to this particular case and continue to extend all legal assistance to take up the verdict with Qatari authorities.
On June 8, In a post on X (formerly Twitter) Meetu Bhargava, sister of one of the accused officers, had appealed to the central government to intervene and bring her brother back.The Ministry of External Affairs added that due to the confidential nature of proceedings they find appropriate to make any specific comments on this case. On 1st October 2023, the Indian ambassador, only after being granted consular access, met the former Navy personnel.
Following their arrest last year, the former Navy personnels got some relief from Qatari authorities atrocities when they were moved out of solitary confinement and were moved in a double-bed occupancy in a jail ward along with their colleagues.Charges were also framed against two Qatari nationals, one of whom is Khamis al-Ajmi, CEO of Dahra Global. he was also kept in solitary confinement for two months starting in October 2022 until his plea for bail was granted. The Qatar authority till date fails to give a clarification for their arrest.
