Seven of the eight former Indian Navy veterans, who were in its custody and were given death sentence there on spying charges, landed in India early morning on Monday. The eight Indian nationals were imprisoned in Qatar since October 2022 and were accused of allegedly spying on a submarine programme.
Arrangements are being made to bring the last released Navy veteran home.
In a press briefing, Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally "constantly" supervised all the developments in the case, adding that the PM has never shied away from any initiatives to bring back Indian nationals home.
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"We are grateful for their return. We deeply appreciate the decision of Qatar's government and the Amir to release them. We are happy to have seven of those Indian nationals back. 8th Indian national has also been released and we continue to work with the Qatar government to see how quickly his return to India would be possible. Prime Minister has himself personally constantly supervised all the developments in this case and has never shied away from any initiatives that would ensure the return of Indian nationals back to home...," Vinay Mohan Kwatra said.
The retired naval personnel were sentenced to death by a Qatar court on charges that have not yet been made public officially. These Navy veterans were employed by a private firm, Dahra Global, and were in Qatar to assist with the introduction of Italian U212 stealth submarines into the Qatari Emiri Naval Force.
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Later, a Qatari Court commuted the death penalty sentence to jail terms of these ex-Indian naval officers after India's intervention. The Navy veterans were arrested last year in the Dahra Global case.
The eight Navy veterans who were arrested in August in Qatar are: Captain Saurabh Vasisht, Captain Navtej Singh Gill, Commander Purnendu Tiwari, Captain Birendra Kumar Verma, Commander Sugunakar Pakala, Commander Sanjeev Gupta, Commander Amit Nagpal, and Sailor Ragesh were arrested in August and had been in jail since.
Ministry of External Affairs, in a statement, thanked the Amir of Qatar for the release of the Indian nationals. "The Government of India welcomes the release of eight Indian nationals working for the 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 home-coming of these nationals," the Ministry of External Affairs said.
The seven former Navy officers raised chants of 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' as they arrived at the Delhi airport in the early hours of Monday. One of the Navy veterans lauded PM Modi for raising their sentencing with Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and attributed their release to relentless diplomatic efforts at his behest.
"I feel relieved and delighted to finally be back home safe and sound. I wish to thank Prime Minister Modi as this wouldn't have been possible had it not been for his personal intervention to secure our release. I also wish to express my gratitude to Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Emir of the State of Qatar," news agency ANI quoted him as saying.
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Another freed former Navy officer also thanked PM Modi and said that without his intervention they would not have walked free. "We wouldn't be standing before you today had it not been for his untiring efforts and interventions at the highest levels to get us freedom," he said.
(with ANI inputs)
