Congress MP Manish Tewari gives an adjournment motion notice in Lok Sabha to discuss the situation of Navy personnel in Qatar
Dec 12, 2023
New Delhi [India], December 12 : Congress MP Manish Tewari on Tuesday gave an adjournment motion notice in Lok Sabha to discuss the situation of imprisoned retired Indian Navy personnel in Qatar.
Eight Indian nationals have been imprisoned in Qatar since October 2022 and were accused of allegedly spying on a submarine programme. The retired naval personnel were sentenced to death by a Qatar court on charges that have not yet been made public officially.
In a letter to the Secretary-General Lok Sabha, Congress leader Manish Tewari said, "I hereby give notice of my intention to ask for leave to move a motion for the adjournment of the business of the house for the purpose of discussing a definite matter of urgent importance."
"This House do suspend Zero Hour, Question Hour, and other businesses of the day to have a discussion regarding the retired Indian Navy personnel imprisoned in Qatar. 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 were sentenced by the Qatari court on October 26, 2023," Tiwari said in the letter.
I have been constantly raising this matter since August 2022, both inside and outside the House but the response of the government has been no response for 14 months.
"In the meantime, the 08 Naval Personnel (Retd) have ostensibly been brutally tortured, self-incriminating confessions extracted and sentenced to death in a Kangaroo Trail in a couple of perfunctory hearings. The government has not even called in the Qatari ambassador to protest the matter strongly. There is no visible protest by the Indian government," he added in the letter.
Despite the purported acceptance of their appeal, crucial details such as charges, the court rationale, and the judgement of the copy of the Court of First Instance remain undisclosed.
"I therefore urge the government to inform the House of the situation about our Navy personnel in Qatar and the steps taken to bring them back to India. I hereby request permission to raise this matter," Tiwari added in the letter.
The eight former Indian Navy personnel were detained in Qatar for over a year. They were sentenced to death by Qatar's Court of First Instance in October 2023. Since then the personnel have been granted permission to appeal the sentence in the Court of Appeals.
New Delhi had been granted consular access to the eight Indians and has been working to secure their release. The Indian nationals had their first trial in late March.
