Congress slams govt after Qatar releases Indian Navy veterans

New Delhi: The Congress on Monday welcomed the release of eight former Indian naval personnel by Qatar, even as the party accused the government of failing to act on time and letting the situation become serious.

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

The eight apparently faced charges of espionage but neither Qatari authorities nor New Delhi made the charges against them public. The Navy veterans were on October 26 last year given death sentences by Qatar's Court of First Instance in a case of suspected espionage.

In a post on 'X', Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, "The Indian National Congress joins the entire nation in its relief and happiness that the eight former Indian Navy personnel earlier sentenced to death by a court in Qatar have been released and are back home." "It sends its greetings and good wishes to them and their families," he said.

Senior Congress leader and former minister of state for external affairs Shashi Tharoor said the release of the Indians was "a huge relief".

"It's a huge relief — and a matter of quiet celebration for all Indians — that eight of our compatriots who were sentenced to death in Qatar have been freed & returned home. Congratulations to all those who worked quietly behind the scenes for their release," he said.

Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said the eight people who have been released should not have been sent to jail in the first place.

"We welcome this (their release) and are relieved that they have returned to their families but why did the situation reach this far. Their families, the country did not know under what case they were being tried for...so why did the situation become so serious in the first place," she said in response to a question at a press conference at the AICC headquarters here.

The Congress MPs had also raised the issue in Parliament but the government ignored it, she alleged.

"If the government had acted on time then these two-three months of uncertainty that were faced when they were sentenced to death would not have arisen. Every time you (government) fail and when a solution is arrived at, then it is claimed as a victory," Shrinate said.

"I am happy that I am part of a party that took up this issue earnestly. We will keep waking up this sleeping and inefficient government because we are committed to the people of this country," she said.

The Court of Appeal in the Gulf nation on December 28 last year commuted the capital punishment of the eight Navy veterans and sentenced them to jail terms for varying durations.

The Indian nationals, who worked with the private company Al Dahra, were arrested in August 2022.