Matter of joy, pride that jailed Navy personnel returned from Qatar: Delhi Assembly speaker

Qatar had released eight jailed former Indian Navy personnel, 46 days after their death sentences handed last October were commuted to jail terms of varying duration.

New Delhi: Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel on Friday praised the efforts made by the Centre to release eight former Indian Navy personnel jailed in Qatar.

During the Assembly session, he said that it was a matter of joy and pride that seven of them have safely returned to India.

Qatar has released eight jailed former Indian Navy personnel, 46 days after their death sentences handed last October were commuted to jail terms of varying duration. Seven of them returned home early Monday.

At the start of the House proceedings, the Speaker read out a message to praise the Indian government for its efforts.

"By efforts of the central government of India, seven of the eight former Indian Navy personnel, have safety returned to India. They were earlier handed out death sentences by a court of Qatar," he said.

Goel said, "From myself and on behalf of the House, I praise the efforts made by the government of India' and pray for safe return of the eighth personnel."

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement on Monday that India appreciates the decision by the Emir of Qatar to enable the release and homecoming of the Indians, who were arrested in August 2022.

The eight nationals are Captains (retired) Navtej Gill and Saurabh Vasisht, Commanders (retired) Purnendu Tiwari, Amit Nagpal, SK Gupta, BK Verma, and Sugunakar Pakala, and sailor Ragesh.

People familiar with the matter earlier said Commander Tiwari stayed back in Doha and is likely to come back to India soon.