The news of 8 Indian Navy
personnel sentenced to death in Qatar without due process of justice has sent
shockwaves amongst the family and friends of the incarcerated in the Middle
East country. The episode has been “unprecedented” in the history of modern India.
While the ‘course-mates’
(people who trained in the same course with him in the National Defense
Academy) and wives have launched a passionate campaign to whip up public
sentiment to get these navy personnel home, the old parents of one of the Indian
veterans are not even aware of the possibility of gallows that their son is
facing.
“Hope is all we have,” former
Indian Navy aviator Commander KP Sanjeev Kumar told the EurAsian Times. “They
have been incarcerated since Aug 30 last year. Charges have not been made
public or even shown to the families. Of the six charges, three were dropped,”
Kumar said while showing his disbelief over the opaque justice process that has
led to the death sentence.
“I fear this case may go the Kulbhushan Jadhav way (another deplorable case,
the trail of which case seems to have gone cold) unless we move with alacrity,”
Kumar says in a heartfelt blog. He remembers the “obsession with propriety and
fairness” of his course-mate Sanjeev, fondly known as “Chote” or “Don” in his course.
“His small frame hides an outsized heart and rock-solid patriotism while his
ever-helpful nature earned him the latter epithet,” Kumar recalls.
“Another accused,
course-mate, Cdr Amit Nagpal (78 NDA), “Naggy” as we call him in our circles,
is a quintessential gentleman — a man of few words and impeccable character
whom I first met when we ran into our NDA course-mates on ships of the training
squadron at Kochi,” Kumar says, while adding: “A communication and electronic
warfare specialist, he knows the value of ‘indiscretion’ and ‘radio silence’
better than most.”
Still trying to wrap his head around the development, Kumar laments: “How did
these character certificates suddenly dissolve into a death sentence?” These
seven officers and one sailor on death row have had impeccable service records
in the Indian Navy and had served in many sensitive postings.
The EurAsian Times spoke to
friends of another officer P Sugunakar, a son of a former Sainik School
Korukonda teacher. His parents are oblivious to the ill fate that has befallen
their son.
“We are all distressed and
shattered and devastated by the news. His wife, Vyjayanti, and his son and
daughter are in shock and worried sick. They are living in fear. They do not
know what to do. The worst part is, they don’t know what he has done,” said K
Kalyan Chakravarty, Sugunakar’s brother-in-law.
The son of two teachers,
Sugunakar joined the Navy soon after he turned 18 and worked in the Naval
Engineering Corps, his family said. He earned his BTech (Mechanical) from the
Naval College of Engineering and also did an MSc in Defence and Strategic
Studies from Defence Services College, Wellington.
India-Qatar Defense Collaboration
The eight naval veterans worked
for a Qatari firm, Al Dahra, before they were charged with espionage and later
sentenced to death. Following an MoU signed between India and Qatar for
cooperation in the defense sector, the firm was involved in imparting training
to Qatar Armed Forces Officers.
Following the arrest in
August 2022, Dahra Global
Technologies, based out of Doha, has gone defunct, leaving the naval
veterans alone. What has shocked the Indian Ministry of External Affairs is
that Qatar, one of the wealthiest countries today, has traditionally enjoyed a
warm and cordial relationship with India.
The veterans were thrown into
solitary confinement, and India was given consular access on October 3, 2022.
It was following this that they were lodged in a double occupancy cell and were
allowed to call their family members in India.
Commander (retired) Purnendu
Tiwari, who is among the detained Indians, served as Al Dahra’s managing
director and commanded several warships while serving with the Navy. The rest
of those convicted include Captain Navtej Singh Gill, Captain Saurabh Vasisht,
Captain Birendra Kumar Verma, Commander Sugunakar Pakala, Commander Sanjeev
Gupta, Commander Amit Nagpal and Sailor Rahesh.
‘Espionage’ Charges Or Misunderstanding
According to a report
carried by The Week magazine in India quoting sources, it was just a “friendly
conversation” by a group of eight former Indian Navy personnel with an Indian
diplomat posted at Doha three months before the arrest that sparked suspicion
among Qatari authorities that secret information may have been exchanged.
“The ex-Navy men had
interacted with a diplomat they were acquainted with because of a previous
professional relationship. It was purely friendly banter and nothing more. But
it got the Qatar authorities suspicious,” a source told The Week on condition
of anonymity.
The India-Qatar ties had seen an uptick after Indian commandos arrested a Dubai
princess, Sheikha Latifa, trying to escape her family in her luxury yacht near
Goa and handed over the Gulf regime in 2018. The Indian government kept mum
over the episode despite a UK court naming Indian special forces behind the
picking up of the royal family member.
Following the 2018 incident,
the Indian and the Qatari navies began a naval military exercise called “Zair
al Bahr,” with the first edition being held in 2019 and the second edition
being held in 2021.
Indians In Foreign
Jails On Espionage Charges
Kulbhushan Jadhav is another
retired Indian naval officer in Pakistan captivity facing the prospect of a
death sentence. His arrest was announced by Pakistan in 2016.
The Pakistanis captured him
along the border with Iran, where he said he was doing business. He was
convicted of espionage charges and was sentenced to death. Jadhav and the
Government of India have denied the Pakistani charges of espionage.
Sarabjit Singh was an Indian national who died in a Pakistan jail of assault
while he was on death row. Singh was arrested in 1991 and was sentenced to
death for a bomb blast that killed 14 people. Reuters reported that Singh’s
family claimed that he had crossed over into Pakistan in a drunken state and
was innocent.
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