All the eight Indian nationals and former Indian navy veterans, who were taken into custody by the Qatar government officials in August 2022, were in a sudden turn of events, released at midnight in Doha. Out of these eight, seven were flown back to India within minutes of their release while one- former Indian navy commander Purnendu Tiwari, has been asked to stay back by the Qatar authorities so that the investigation in the case can be completed by the Qatari officials.
While an official confirmation was awaited, sources told the Daily Guardian that the eight Indians had received a pardon from the Emir of Qatar, Tamim Ibn Hamad Al Thani. India based family members of some of these eight individuals were informed about their release at 2.30 AM in the intervening night of Sunday and Monday.
Family members and sources in Delhi and Doha told the Daily Guardian that their release, which was looking a distant reality for many, became possible after Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally intervened in the matter and requested Hamad Al Thani to release the eight Indians.
On Monday, it was announced that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will make a previously unscheduled visit to Qatar to meet the emir and personally thank him. Modi is going on a two-day visit to the United Arab Emirate on February 13-14.
He will reach Doha on the evening of February 14 and fly back to India on the evening of February 15.
Till last week, beat reporters who claim to have access to the top offices of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), were publicly claiming to other journalists and MEA officials that the return of these eight Indians was ‘very difficult’ and unlikely to happen any time soon.
Sources said that the head of another of India’s ally, who respects the PM a lot and also shares very good relations with the Qatar government, too played an important role in resolving this crisis.
The developments came even as these eight had filed an appeal against the 3 years to 25 years prison sentence that they were given last month after their death sentence was commuted by a local court.
Till now, eighteen months of their detention and release, no formal statement has been made by India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) or the Qatar government as to on what charges were the eight Indians taken into custody by the Qatar intelligence agencies.
The government of India had been at sea to secure their release amidst the secrecy surrounding the case and foreign countries getting involved in this matter and started peddling the narrative that these eight Indians were spying on a ‘ secret submarine’ defence project that the Qatar government was working on. After the last year’s 26 October order of the Qatar Court of First Instance to hand over death sentence to these eight Indians which the MEA had described as ‘shocking’, a break through looked improbable with family members of these individuals, all of who were working for the now defunct Dahra global, filing mercy petitions with the emir of Qatar to get their family members released.
Many of the family members sought divine intervention and even went to Peetambra Peetha in Datia , Madhya Pradesh to seek the blessings of the almighty for the safe being of their family members.
However, things started changing rapidly for the good after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Qatar’s Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani on the sidelines of the COP28 summit in Dubai on 1 December and among other things, discussed the well-being of the Indian community in the oil-rich country.
Till then, according to family members of the eight Indians, they were being told by government officials that things were not moving the way they were expecting and asked them to be prepared for a long and difficult time.
After the meeting between Modi and Amir Sheikh, their death sentence was reduced to prison sentence on 28 December.
The Sunday Guardian, the sister concern of the Daily Guardian. had written in December 31 edition that the eight Indians will be back to India by March.
Speaking to the Daily Guardian, the family members of former naval commander Purnendu Tiwari said that they were very grateful to PM Modi and the Emir of Qatar for releasing all these eight Indians.
“We had tears in our eyes when we heard this good news. We are very appreciative and proud of what the Prime Minister has done and we never lost the faith in his ability to bring these men back. We just pray that Purnendu too comes back to India like the rest of his team members. He is not in the best of his health and mentally also he has become very weak. His mother is at a very advanced age and she is just waiting for him to come back. My prayer to the PM is to use his cordial relations to bring back our family members too now,” a family member told the Daily Guardian.
Sources said that Tiwari, after being released from the prison along with the eight others, is now staying at his home in Doha and he has been asked not to leave Doha till the ‘ investigations’ in the matter is complete. In 2019 he was conferred the prestigious Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award-2019 by the President of India for enhancing India’s image abroad.
Tiwari , who is a highly decorated navy officer, was the senior most officer who was detailed by Qatari officials in August 2022. He was working as the Managing Director of Dahra global. Khamis Al-Ajmi, the Oman national who served as the CEO of Dahra global, too has not been asked not to leave Doha.
Ajmi, who is a retired squadron leader of the Royal Oman Air Force, too was arrested along-with the Indian nationals , but was released after two months.