New Delhi: Three months after being sentenced to death, eight former Indian Navy personnel have been released from Qatar’s custody and seven of them brought back to Bharat, announced the Ministry of External Affairs on Monday. One among the released individuals is a Kerala native named Ragesh Gopakumar. Last December, the appellate court in Qatar had commuted the death sentence of the eight former Indian Navy personnel.
In a statement, the MEA expressed Bharat’s gratitude for the release of the eight Indian nationals employed by Dahra Global company who were detained in Qatar. It mentioned, “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 Indian nationals, employed by the Doha-based Dahra Global, were apprehended in August 2022. The specific charges against them were not disclosed by Qatari authorities. According to reports they were charged with spying for Israel. In early December, following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani on the sidelines of the COP28 summit in Dubai on December 1, the Indian ambassador in Doha was granted consular access to them, leading to the subsequent commutation of their sentences.
The individuals sentenced to death by the Qatari court, and now released, include Commander Purnendu Tiwari, Commander Sugunakar Pakala, Commander Amit Nagpal, Commander Sanjeev Gupta, Captain Navtej Singh Gill, Captain Birendra Kumar Verma, Captain Saurabh Vasisht, and Ragesh Gopakumar from Thiruvananthapuram.
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