A court in Qatar has sentenced eight former Indian Navy personnel to death. These individuals were arrested by Qatari authorities on August 30, 2022, and have been in solitary confinement since then. Their trial commenced on March 29 of the current year.
The Ministry of External Affairs expressed its deep shock at the death penalty verdict and stated that it is awaiting the detailed judgment. The ministry also mentioned that it is exploring all legal options in response to the verdict. The specific reasons for the veterans’ prolonged custody in Qatar and the imposition of the death penalty have not been publicly disclosed, and the families of the veterans were not informed of the formal charges against them during the trial.
This case poses a significant diplomatic challenge for the Indian government.
The eight former Navy personnel—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—were working at Al Dahra Global Technologies and Consultancy Services, a defense services provider company. The company is owned by Omani national Khamis al-Ajmi, a retired squadron leader of the Royal Oman Air Force. Al-Ajmi was also arrested with the eight Indians but was released in November 2022.
The company’s previous website, which is no longer available, indicated that it offered training, logistics, and maintenance services to the Qatari Emiri Naval Force (QENF). The current website of the company, Dahra Global, does not mention its connection to QENF or the seven former Navy officers who held leadership roles in the company.
Commander Purnendu Tiwari (retd), who served as the Managing Director of the company, was honored with the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman in 2019 for his contributions to enhancing bilateral relations between India and Qatar. He was recognized in Doha by the then Indian Ambassador P Kumaran and a former head of the Qatar defense forces’ International Military Cooperation. Most of the detained individuals had been working at Dahra for four to six years at the time of their arrest.
The men were apprehended by the Qatari State Security Bureau, the country’s intelligence agency. The Indian Embassy first learned of their arrests in mid-September the previous year. On September 30, they were allowed brief telephone contact with their family members, and the first consular access was granted on October 3, more than a month after their detention. They were granted weekly phone calls to their family members for several months at least.
While the specific charges against the men were never disclosed, their solitary confinement led to speculation that they were detained in connection with a security-related offense.
