A former Indian Navy official, whose death sentence was commuted by a Qatari court in 2023, has been unable to return to his country because he was detained and sentenced in a separate case, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Friday.
Without going into details about the new accusations against the Navy veteran, External Affairs Ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said in a weekly press conference that the Indian side is in contact with Commander (retired) Purnendu Tiwari, his family and his lawyer regarding the case against him in Qatar.
Tiwari was among eight former Indian Navy personnel arrested by Qatari authorities in 2022 on espionage charges. The men, who included highly decorated officers, were sentenced to death in 2023, but a Qatari court later commuted the sentence.
The eight men were released on the orders of the Qatari Emir in February 2024, which was followed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Doha. Seven of the eight men returned to India, while Tiwari remained in Qatar.
“Navy Veteran Eighth has a special case against him. He has been arrested in that case [case]. “It has nothing to do with the previous case,” Jaiswal said.
He added, “The court there issued a ruling according to which he was sentenced. We are in contact with him, his family and his lawyer. Therefore, this is the specific case.”
This incident caused tension in Indian-Qatari relations for several months before the two sides were able to reach a solution to the issue related to accusations of alleged involvement in espionage. People familiar with the matter said Tiwari was accused of financial irregularities related to his former employer, a subsidiary of the Amman-based Al Dahra Engineering and Security Services Company that provided training and other services to the Qatari armed forces.
Jaiswal responded to a question about Tiwari’s case hours after his sister, Mitu Bhargava, confirmed in a social media post that the Ministry of External Affairs and the government had failed to secure his return to the country. Tiwari was left behind while his seven colleagues were sent back to India in February 2024, Bhargava said.
She added: “Commander Tiwari has endured nearly four years of extreme hardship in Doha, and has now been in prison for nearly five months. He suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) along with other serious medical conditions. His health is rapidly deteriorating.”
“What is even more disturbing is that the cases against him were spun from the same case for which he was already granted pardon by the court.” [the Qatari Amir]She added: “Although he has no role in the company’s financial matters.”
