According to sources who spoke to NDTV, the seven Navy veterans who were imprisoned in Qatar and returned to India today were unaware that they would soon be released.
According to the sources, jailors advised the veterans to pack their belongings and wait until approximately 9:00 a.m. (local time) last evening. According to sources, they were then spirited off to the Embassy and then to the airport. They got on an IndiGo plane, and two in the morning it landed in Delhi.
Eight Indians, including the seven veterans, were given death sentences by a Qatari court in October on suspicion of spying. In December, the death penalty was revoked as a result of diplomatic intervention from India. The lone veteran who hasn’t returned yet is completing some paperwork and should be back soon.
These veterans, who are retired, 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. Captain Navtej Singh Gill is back today. The eight veterans have been detained in jail since their capture in Qatar in 2022.
Despite rumors that they were detained on espionage charges, neither New Delhi nor Doha have addressed the accusations in the media. The veterans worked for a private company called Dahra Global and were involved in the Qatar Navy’s training prior to their detention.
Eight Indian citizens who were “working for the Dahra Global company who were detained in Qatar” were released, according to a statement from the External Affairs Ministry. “Of the eight, seven have gone back to India. We are grateful that the Amir of the State of Qatar has made the decision to allow these citizens to be released and return home,” the ministry stated.
Shortly after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani of Qatar on the margins of the COP28 session in Dubai in December, the veterans’ execution sentence was mitigated.
One of the veterans thanked the prime minister back home. “We are overjoyed to have returned safely to India. Without a doubt, we are grateful to PM Modi for his personal intervention, which made this possible.”
“It took us eighteen months to return to India. We are deeply appreciative of the Prime Minister. Without his personal influence and his arrangement with Qatar, it would never have happened. “We express our sincere gratitude to the Government of India for all of its efforts,” added an additional person.
