By: Express News Service
New Delhi | Updated: February 12, 2024 12:26 IST

While seven sailors returned to India early Monday morning, Commander Purnendu Tiwari, whose death sentence was commuted but still received the harshest punishment of a 25-year life term, hasn’t returned yet

Three months after they were sentenced to death, seven out of the eight former Indian Navy personnel were released from Qatar’s custody and brought back to India, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Monday.

“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 MEA statement said.

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While seven sailors returned to India early Monday morning, Commander Purnendu Tiwari, whose death sentence was commuted but still received the harshest punishment of a 25-year life term, hasn’t returned yet. He, too, is expected to be back in India soon.

Speaking to news agency ANI, one of the men who was released said, “We are happy that we have returned to India safe and sound. We would like to thank Prime Minister Modi as his personal intervention made this possible, and Amir of Qatar for allowing this to happen.”

In December last year, the appellate court in Qatar had commuted the death sentence to the eight former Indian Navy personnel.

The Indian nationals, all employees of Doha-based Dahra Global, were taken into custody in August 2022. The charges against them were not made public by Qatari authorities. According to a report in the Financial Times, they were charged with spying for Israel. In early December, for the first time since eight former Indian Navy personnel were handed death sentences in October, the Indian ambassador in Doha had met them in prison.

This consular access to the Indian envoy and the subsequent commutation was granted after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani on the sidelines of the COP28 summit in Dubai on December 1. The two leaders had discussed bilateral partnership and the “well-being of the Indian community” living in Qatar — this was seen as a euphemism for discussing the situation regarding the eight former Indian Navy personnel on death row.

The Indians had been working in their private capacity with Dahra Global to oversee the induction of Italian small stealth submarines U2I2. They have been identified as Captain Navtej Singh Gill, Captain Birendra Kumar Verma, Captain Saurabh Vasisht, Commander Amit Nagpal, Commander Purnendu Tiwari, Commander Sugunakar Pakala, Commander Sanjeev Gupta and Sailor Ragesh.

Days after the verdict in October last year, which India had called “deeply shocking”, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had met their family members and assured them that the government attached “the highest importance” to the case. In addition to government efforts, the families of the eight had also submitted a mercy plea to the Emir of Qatar.